Krystal109
Guest
|
 |
« on: March 03, 2010, 08:46:53 PM » |
|
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Chapter 2
Written by Katlyn
Edited by Krystal
When Susie first entered heaven she thought everyone saw the same thing she did. In her heaven the buildings all looked like they were built in the 1960’s and had orange and turquoise blocks, just like Fairfax High. She recalled when her father drive past Fairfax High so she could imagine herself there. She would rule Fairfax a queen, but still be nice. Her dreams on Earth were simple ones.
After a few days in Heaven, Susie began to realize that the other people only appeared in the part of her heaven they shared and she soon met Holly, her roommate. They became friends immediately and created their own heavens together with the help of Franny. They created a duplex and ways to entertain them, but Susie couldn’t have the one thing she wanted, Mr. Harvey dead and her alive. She thought that if she watched Earth and willed it hard enough, she might change the lives of those she cared about.
Her father was the one who accepted the call on December ninth from Len Fenerman learning of Susie’s elbow. Of course, nothing was certain. At least that’s what he told Abigail. For three nights her parents didn’t go near each other as they broke down together. Then one night Abigail burst into tears and Susie’s father held her close as they fell asleep. Susie turned her eyes to the cornfield.
On the morning of the tenth, Lindsey caught their father pouring Scotch down the sink and she asked why. Mr. Salmon confessed that the police had found and body part and Lindsey became sick.
Later that morning the police started to search the cornfield and found her blood in the newly manipulated dirt. The neighbors had come out to watch the search, but as the day drowned on they all went home, all except Mrs. Stead. Finally, the police found something and called Mrs. Stead over to confirm that the copy of To Kill a Mockingbird was indeed being read in Mrs. Dewitt’s class. Two days later, the police found Susie's notes from Mr. Botte's class and a love letter by Ray Singh and he became the first suspect. Of course, even Susie’s family knew that this was ludicrous and when forty-five people became his alibi, the police backed off, but his reputation was still tarnished. The only thing Susie could take solace in was her dog, Holiday, who she missed in a way she refused to let herself feel about her parents.
On December fifteenth Len Fenerman appeared at the Salmon house with new evidence, Susie's hat with her saliva on it. With the mounting evidence, the police felt that it was reasonable to assume Susie was murderd and they would be working this as a homicide now. Unable to let his family see him cry, Mr. Salmon went upstairs and cried in the fur of Holiday.
That afternoon Nate’s mother came to return Buckley, but when no one answered she knew something was amiss and took him out for ice cream. By four Susie’s parents had finally managed to gather together and call her grandma Lynn.
Susie worried most about her sister and watched her closely at school. Everyone whispered to each other and when Mrs. Dewitt said the principal wanted to see her, Lindsey left in silence. Principal Caden was renowned for trying to comfort his students during troubled times, but Lindsey wasn’t an easy break. Trying to change his tactic, Mr. Caden informed that Mr. Dewitt wished to start a girl’s soccer team centered are Lindsey and asked how she felt. Lindsey finally lashed out and then left Mr. Caden mouth wide open.
Susie often found herself desiring more from her heaven, such as dogs, and they would appear. It became ritual that Holly would play her tenor sax outside they would join in as a chorus. After a while the oldest resident of Susie’s heaven, Mrs. Bethel Utemeyer, would join in on her violin as a duet. The song reverberated until Holly passed the tune over to Mrs. Utemeyer to finish the song. Everything was silent then; this became Susie’s Eversong.
Characters Involved
Susie Salmon
Holly
Franny
Jack Salmon
Len Fenerman
Abigail Salmon
Lindsey Salmon
Mrs. Stead
Mrs. Singh
Ray Singh
Holiday
Nate’s Mother
Buckley Salmon
Mrs. Dewitt
Danny Clarke
Sylvia Henley
Principal Caden
Mrs. Bethel Utemeyer
Characters Mentioned
Clive Saunders
Phoebe Hart
Herman Jade
Mr. Harvey
Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert
Nate
Clarissa
Mr. Botte
Mr. Singh
Lynn
Mr. Dewitt
Vicki Kurtz
Mr. and Mrs. O’Dwyers
Places Visited
Heaven
Salmon House
Cornfield
Singh house
Kennet Junior High School
Memorable Quotes
Susie: Following the seventh, eighth and ninth grades of middle school, high school would have been a fresh start. (Page 17)
Susie: I had to forget that I too had made lists in the margins of my notebook when Phoebe walked by: Winniebagos, Hoo-has, Johnny Yellows. (Page 18)
Susie: We had been givem in our heavens, our simplest dreams. There were no teachers in the school. We never had to go inside except for art class for me and jazz band for Holly. The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue. (Page 19)
Franny: “Walk the paths,” Franny said, “and you’ll find what you need.”
Susie: So that’s when Holly and I set out. Our heaven had an ice cream shop where, when you asked for peppermint stick ice cream, no one ever said, “It’s seasonal”; it had a newspaper where our pictures appeared a lot and made us look important; it had real men in it and beautiful women too, because Holly and I were devoted to fashion magazines. (Page 21)
Jack Salmon: “So you can’t be certain that she’s dead?” he asked.
Len Fenerman: “Nothing is ever certain,” Len Fenerman said.
Jack Salmon: That was the line my father said to my mother: “Nothing is ever certain.” (Page 22)
Lindsey: “Dad, I want you to tell me what it was. Which body part, and then I’m going to need to throw up.” (Page 24)
Lindsey: Inside, my sister’s heart closed like a fist. “I’d say it would be pretty hard to play soccer on the soccer field when it’s approximately twenty feet from where my sister was supposedly murdered.”
Susie: Score! (Page 36)
Questions for consideration:
How do you think Susie’s family is going to cope with the loss of their daughter and how do you think she can help them?
How do you feel about the way Lindsey is dealing with her grief? Do you think she is going to break down or stay solid as a rock?
Is there anything else in this chapter you’d like to discuss with the book club?
|
Author