Chapter 76: A Side of the Street Goodbye
Spoiler notice: This content reveals key events from the novel and should be read after finishing the chapter.
Summary
Misty leads Patch into her family’s sprawling yard, a place without visible limits where mountains loom beyond. They settle onto swings in the moonlit space, surrounded by a covered pool, a flowered pagoda, and a statue of a woman without arms. Misty asks Patch if he would like to watch her horse perform dressage—a sport she describes as making a horse dance. He does not quite understand, and they laugh into a long silence. She then asks if “the afterwards” is hard, meaning life after trauma. Patch thinks it was hard even before, just in a different way. Misty confides that she never saw her father cry until the day she was brought to the police station with injuries. Later, when she was supposedly sleeping under heavy medication, she sat on the stairs and watched his shoulders shake as her mother pressed against his back. She minimizes her own suffering, but Patch recognizes her world cracked only at the edges and is not truly broken. He is grateful for that. He tells her that her friendship, however welcome, is a constant reminder that his own world remains wrong. She asks what she should do, and he replies: eat lobster, sit on her swing, then go back to her side of the street. He thanks her parents and says good night. As he leaves, he knows that when he sits on the fallen oak on Monday, she will not come to sit beside him.
Key Events
- Misty escorts Patch into a luxurious, boundless yard at her home.
- They swing side by side in the shadow of mountains.
- Misty mentions dressage and invites Patch to watch.
- Misty asks about the difficulty of “the afterwards.”
- She reveals she watched her father weep after her assault.
- Patch tells her that her efforts to connect only highlight that things are not right with him.
- He instructs her to return to her privileged life and leave him alone.
- Patch departs, certain she will no longer visit him at the fallen oak.
Character Development
Patch
He is direct and fatalistic, pushing Misty away not out of anger but out of a desire to protect her from the distortion he feels his own life imposes. He is resigned to enduring his pain in isolation and sees his own presence as a pollutant to her world. This chapter crystallizes his self-imposed exile.
Misty
She reveals a wounded interior beneath her polished surface, sharing a memory of her father’s grief and a sense of her own diminished trauma. Her vulnerability is genuine, but Patch’s rejection leaves her confused and likely hurt. She is positioned as someone capable of empathy yet trapped by the gulf between their lives.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- The Afterwards
Both characters grapple with the lingering weight of trauma. Patch acknowledges his was hard before captivity; Misty attempts to frame hers as minor, but the moment shows how pain in any form redefines normalcy. - Two Sides of the Street
Patch explicitly uses this spatial metaphor to delineate their worlds. Her infinity lawn, lobster, and swings stand in stark contrast to his fallen oak and the remnants of paint beneath his nails. - Absence and Goodbye
The swing scene is a deliberate farewell. Patch chooses absence over continued connection, believing it is kinder. The fallen oak, once a meeting point, becomes a symbol of anticipated emptiness.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter marks the deliberate end of Patch’s fragile bond with Misty. It strips away the possibility that their friendship might bridge their separate lives, making clear that Patch’s instinct is to withdraw rather than lean on others. It deepens the novel’s examination of survivor’s guilt and the belief that damaged people corrupt what they touch. The conversation also enriches Misty’s character, showing she carries her own unseen scars and that her wealth does not insulate her from family anguish. The finality of “good night” sets up a new phase of Patch’s solitude.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Patch tell Misty to go back to her side of the street?
He believes that her attention is a reminder that his life is distorted and that he might somehow taint her world. He sees himself as damaged, and the sight of her only reinforces his otherness. By sending her away, he imagines he is preserving her normality. -
How does Misty’s memory of her father crying affect the scene?
It humanizes her and shows that trauma radiates beyond the victim. Her father’s tears make her pain visible even while she tries to minimize it, and it adds weight to Patch’s realization that her world, though not broken, has been tested. It also parallels his own concealed suffering. -
What does the setting—the boundless yard, the pool, the statue—contribute to the chapter’s meaning?
The setting underscores the economic and emotional distance between them. The infinity-like space, the sculptured woman without arms, and the pagan-like pagoda create a surreal, untouchable quality. It mirrors the idea that her life is something Patch can observe but never inhabit.