93 pages • 3 hours read
Joyce Carol OatesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
It is March. Matt sends Ursula an email: “Dear Ursula, Thank you for the other day. Your friend Matt” (154).
Matt writes another email to Ursula. He wonders if their meeting on the ravine had a purpose beyond chance.
Ursula replies, agreeing that everything has a purpose.
Matt writes that their hiking together felt oddly familiar and comforting: “That was how I felt. With you. Hiking back down and not needing to talk, like there needed nothing to be said” (156). He deletes his message without sending it.
In a flashback, Matt is back at home just after his hike with Ursula. He tells Pumpkin he was not really going to commit suicide; “[e]ven if Pumpkin didn’t believe, Pumpkin trusted him” (158).
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