Chapter 16
by Chris
Summary:Exactly one year after Susie's death, we find Ray's mother; Ruana trying to do her exercises while forgetting her husbands more increasingly absence's.
Ruth had been grocery shopping with her mother, when she decided that she would go to Ray’s and they would light candles in Susie’s honor. Ruth shows up at Ray’s house later on that day, with all the supplies needed. Ruth and Ray have grown close through Susie’s death and had begun experimenting with kissing, because they are of course young teenagers with burning curiosity and hormones. Despite the fact that Ruth has been interested in woman, she optioned to continuing kissing Ray…at first they would pretend that each other was Susie, but after awhile Ray would no longer pretend. He liked that she was different, that she hated their school and didn’t care that Ray had a good rich life, but he could never tell Ruth all that. So before they went to the cornfield to mourn Susie, they laid together and made out….Ruth realizing that she might actually feel something for Ray.
Ruth and Ray arrived at the cornfield to find that Samuel and his brother Hal had the same idea. Not soon after did a few neighbors had the same thought and also saw the others begin to walk to the cornfield. After a short while, the cornfield was filled up with people that Susie had known in her former life teachers, friends, neighbors, and then finally her own father, sister and brother showed up. Abigail locked herself away in her books, away from the 1 year anniversary of her daughter’s death, away from everyone. She lied to her daughter that day; she had promised she would never leave her daughter.
Susie’s father had asked Mr. O’Dwyers to sing for the crowd gathered on his daughter’s grave. When Susie was still alive she would sit by the window in the summer and listen to her neighbor sing in some foreign languages, she loved it. The beautiful melody carried everyone in that cornfield, remembering the girl that had been taken so abruptly and given her father the chance to be him, to show how much he ached for his daughter. Susie was not invincible, like she had told her mother one night during a thunderstorm…but here in the field on her one year anniversary; she would live forever remembered in the hearts of her peers and family.
Characters:Ruth
Ray
Susie
Samuel
Hal
Abigail
Jack
Buckley
Lindsey
Places:Ray’s House
The cornfield
Salmon’s home
Memorable Quotes:1. “I may be screwed up, but at least I’m not a perv for charcoal”. – Ruth page 201
2. “Murder had a blood red door on the other side of which was everything unimaginable to everyone” – Susie page 206
3. “You are so special; I’ll always be here, no matter what.” – Lindsey page 208
4. “You look invincible.” – Abigail to Susie “I am.” – page 211
Questions for consideration:
1. Do you think that on some level what Ruth and Ray are doing is normal? Also, what do you think about their relationship, what will happen later?
2. Why do you think Susie’s mother didn’t even go to the cornfield that night, was it then that she finally gave them all up and the left the past the past?
3. What do you think of Lindsey taking on the roll of sister, mother, wife, and girlfriend? What do that say about her character, and how will all that responsibility affect her?
4. A year has gone by now, and are you happy to see that some people are finally making peace with it? Do you see the irony in Susie’s story about being invincible, that in a way, she was correct? 
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