When Crickets Cry: a Novel of the Heart

Reese thinks back to the first time Emma menstruated. They were swimming in a creek, and Charlie panicked, thinking she was dying. “That night, I dug into my books and spent hours reading about women’s bodies and the way things worked. Emma didn’t look like those pictures, but I knew that in order to fix her, in order for her to live, I had to get past all that” (65). 

Reese thinks back to when he and Charlie donated blood for Emma. “Apparently, the added strain on Emma’s body caused by the monthly loss of blood had been exponentially compounding Emma’s problem” (67), so she received extra blood every couple of months. 

Back in the present day, Reese visits Annie in the hospital and finds both her and Cindy asleep in the room, surrounded by a pile of papers, all describing how to get a loan. Cindy and Annie wake up, and Reese gives Annie a plush frog (not a bear like most other people have given her). Cindy thanks him and invites him over for dinner. In response, he invites Cindy and Annie to take a ride on one of the