Chapter 38 Summary & Analysis: 36. Trey Beathard
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Trey Beathard learns from Thomas Fisher that Gabe Fisher has an inoperable brain tumor the size of a grapefruit, has gone blind, and is returning home to Lakota. The news unmoors Trey for days, resurrecting his belief that nothing says life has to be fair. After giving the family time to settle, he visits Gabe and is shaken by the young man’s blindness and diminishing body. Trey at first withdraws because he cannot bear watching Gabe deteriorate, but returns when Thomas says Gabe has been asking for him. Encouraged by his wife Merryn, Trey takes on an overnight vigil shift once a week.
During a quiet 3 a.m. watch, Gabe wakes in pain and confides a dream about his ex-girlfriend, Bella. He speaks of their relationship in Madison and his decision to break up with her before moving to London, convinced he had to give everything to his career. Trey urges him to call Bella and make amends, but Gabe refuses. Unwilling to let the chance for connection slip away, Trey secretly searches online and identifies an Isabella Alvarez in California who matches the handful of details he has. He contacts her, and by that afternoon Bella responds.
Key Events
- Thomas informs Trey that Gabe has a fatal, inoperable brain tumor and has lost his sight.
- Trey visits a subdued, shrinking Gabe at the Fisher home and later begins weekly overnight bedside shifts.
- In the early morning hours, Gabe wakes from a dream about Bella and recounts their breakup before London.
- Trey pushes Gabe to reach out to Bella, but Gabe insists he cannot.
- Ignoring Merryn’s skepticism, Trey searches for Isabella Alvarez online, eventually locating a promising candidate.
- Trey messages the woman; later the same day, Bella replies.
Character Development
- Trey Beathard – The chapter deepens Trey’s evolution from a coach who prizes toughness into a man confronting raw vulnerability. He begins overwhelmed by helplessness and guilt over having steered Gabe into football, but his compulsion to do something—water, reading, holding vigil, and finally launching a digital search—shows his refusal to remain passive. Merryn’s objections highlight his stubbornness, yet his act of reaching out to Bella is portrayed as a small, urgent kindness.
- Gabe Fisher – Though physically declining, Gabe reveals an emotional lucidity and deep regret. His admission that ambition made him “so stupid” and his inability to call Bella himself emphasize his despair, while his grip on Trey’s arm conveys a hunger for human comfort.
- Merryn – Briefly seen, she acts as Trey’s pragmatic counterweight, telling him to sleep on the idea and calling his search foolish—yet her presence underlines that Trey is acting from love, not mere stubbornness.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Helplessness as agony – Trey explicitly describes helplessness as a torment worse than physical pain because no pill or herb can soothe it. The 3 a.m. vigil in the black stillness exemplifies this.
- Unfairness of life – Trey’s father’s maxim that nothing says life has to be fair reverberates throughout the chapter, embodied in a young giant being felled by disease.
- Ambition versus love – Gabe’s regret frames ambition as a “jealous lover” that demanded everything, costing him a relationship that might have given meaning beyond football.
- The impossibility of changing the past – Trey’s own coaching mantra—“the present and the future are under your control”—collides with Gabe’s reality of dying, reframed when Trey determines to fix one past mistake for him.
- Small, embodied acts of care – Offering water, a hand on an arm, reading aloud, and the simple decision to find a phone number all become forms of resistance against the abyss of helplessness.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter pivots Trey from a secondary observer into an active agent in Gabe’s emotional life. It confronts the limits of control, yet shows that while Trey cannot alter the medical outcome, he can pursue a sliver of reconciliation. By tracking down Bella, Trey plants a seed of hope that enriches the novel’s meditation on mortality and human connection. The chapter also crystallizes the central tension between accepting fate and fighting for what remains possible.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Trey feel a special agony over helplessness, and how does he try to combat it?
Trey ranks helplessness as uniquely unbearable because it offers no pill or easy relief. He combats it through concrete actions: being present, offering water, reading to Gabe, and ultimately taking the initiative to locate Bella when Gabe himself will not act. -
How does the chapter use the past to define both Gabe’s regret and Trey’s motivation?
Gabe’s dream of Bella and his lament that ambition cost him the relationship show that the past haunts him. For Trey, Gabe’s regret becomes a challenge to rewrite the past’s hold by arranging a reunion, demonstrating that while the past is immutable, its power over the present can be addressed. -
What does Merryn’s reaction to Trey’s search reveal about his character?
Merryn calls Trey “too old and too ugly to play Cupid” and warns him the odds are slim, highlighting his quixotic determination. Her skepticism casts Trey’s pursuit as both foolish and deeply compassionate, revealing a man who will act on love even when logic argues against it.