Chapter 26 — Miri: Summary, Analysis, and Key Themes

⚠️ 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

The chapter opens with Miri's flat observation that things go on—unfortunately, they do. Leah now spends roughly seventy percent of each day in the bath, up from sixty percent. Miri goes about her routine: she works, fails to work, and watches movies she can't follow, all while trying to coax Leah into eating. Her efforts are largely unsuccessful. She brings Leah salt dissolved in beakers of water, which seems to ease the recurring pulse in Leah's neck and shoulders that keeps driving her back to the bath.

The external support system begins to crumble. The therapist calls to report that a check from the Centre bounced and says she can't continue sessions without payment. When Miri calls the Centre, the phone rings endlessly—no automated message, just silence. She tries to find the support website for wives of returned spacemen but can't recall the address. The Centre's own website returns a 404 error. She realizes she has misplaced the Centre's physical address and spends an hour searching through papers in vain. She imagines what she would even say if she got there: Can you fix her? Can you give her back again, but better?

Miri's sense of reality grows unstable. In the hall mirror, she briefly sees herself back in her mother's house—a trick of the light. She feels terrified that each room might cease to exist the moment she leaves it. The world, she reflects, is folding over like a book whose past pages she cannot access. Even her bad tooth has stopped hurting, as if her body is going numb along with her emotions.

One afternoon, Miri insists Leah join her on a walk to the common land where they used to stroll when they first moved. Leah moves with a noticeable lean to the left, as though a piece of her is unsupported. On the grass, she falls slowly, dragging downward on Miri's arm. A woman passing by with a dachshund in a fuchsia jacket asks if Miri's friend is all right. Miri says yes without knowing what she's saying and lets the woman go without asking for help. Leah lies curled into herself on the grass, like a conch, like something from which a creature might emerge.

Miri gets Leah home—she couldn't say how—and puts her in the bath. She manhandles the television into the bathroom, balances it on the toilet seat, and puts on Jaws. She sits on the mat beside the tub, keeping one hand on the side so Leah can touch her if she wants. Leah follows the movie and flicks water at the back of Miri's head when the shark first appears. Miri remembers the first time they watched the film together, when Leah cut herself off mid-conversation about sharks and said she didn't want to be boring. The chapter ends with Miri's exhaustion: her heart is a thin thing, a shred of paper blown between the spaces in her ribs.

Key Events

Leah's time in the bath increases to roughly seventy percent of the day.
The therapist reports a bounced check from the Centre and suspends sessions.
The Centre's phone rings unanswered and its website returns a 404 error.
Miri can't recall the support-site address or the Centre's physical address.
Miri insists on a walk; Leah falls on the common land.
A passerby offers a moment of potential help that Miri declines.
Miri brings the television into the bathroom and plays Jaws.
Leah responds by flicking water at Miri when the shark appears.

Character Development

Miri: This chapter shows Miri's emotional depletion deepening. She describes feeling not particularly anything—a numbness that has replaced her earlier vigilance. Her inability to ask the woman with the dachshund for help is telling: she has lost the capacity to reach out even when help is offered. Her fear that rooms might cease to exist when she leaves them suggests her grip on reality is fraying alongside Leah's transformation. Yet she continues to act—insisting on the walk, moving the television, sitting beside the tub—a caregiver running on diminishing reserves.

Leah: Leah is almost entirely passive in this chapter. She doesn't resist the walk but can't complete it, falling slowly and curling into herself. The conch simile suggests she is becoming something other than human—a shell from which a creature might emerge. Her one active moment is flicking water at Miri during Jaws, a small gesture of connection that echoes their earlier shared viewing.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Saltwater dependency: The salt water Miri brings in beakers staves off the pulse in Leah's neck and shoulders, reinforcing the idea that Leah's body is becoming marine. The bath is no longer a comfort but a necessity.

Institutional disappearance: The Centre's phone ringing endlessly, the 404 error, the forgotten addresses—the institutional support that was supposed to exist has evaporated. This mirrors the broader theme of how systems fail the people they claim to support.

Unstable reality: Miri's fear that rooms might cease to exist, the mirror trick showing her mother's house, the world folding over like a book—reality itself is becoming unreliable, paralleling Leah's physical transformation.

Conch symbolism: Leah curled on the grass like a conch, like something from which a creature might emerge, suggests both shelter and transformation—a shell that contains something new.

Shark symbolism: Jaws as the film they watch together connects to Leah's earlier interest in sharks (she cut herself off talking about them, not wanting to be boring). The shark is a predator of the deep—Leah's flick of water at its appearance is her only moment of playfulness, a fragile thread of the person she was.

Things go on: The opening refrain—unfortunately, things go on—frames the chapter's relentless forward motion despite collapse.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter marks the point where the external support systems fully fail. The therapist is gone, the Centre is unreachable, and Miri is left entirely alone with Leah's deterioration. The walk and Leah's fall on the grass is the first time we see Leah's physical collapse outside the flat, and the conch image is one of the novel's most explicit suggestions that Leah is becoming something other than human. The Jaws scene provides a rare moment of connection between the two women—a small, almost tender gesture in the midst of collapse. The chapter also deepens Miri's own unraveling, showing a caregiver whose reality is becoming as unstable as her wife's body.

Study Questions

1. Why does Miri tell the woman with the dachshund that her friend is all right when Leah has clearly collapsed?

Miri says yes without knowing what she's saying—she has lost the capacity to articulate what is happening, and possibly the capacity to ask for help. The moment also reflects her isolation: the support networks (therapist, Centre) have failed, and she no longer knows how to reach out to strangers. The word friend rather than wife is also notable—Miri doesn't correct it, suggesting a kind of dissociation from the situation.

2. What does the conch simile suggest about Leah's condition?

Leah curled like a conch, like something from which a creature might emerge, suggests she is becoming a shell—something hollowed out, but also something that contains a new form of life. The image is ambiguous: it could suggest transformation into something marine, or it could suggest that the human Leah is receding while something else takes her place.

3. How does the Jaws scene function in this chapter?

Jaws connects to Leah's earlier interest in sharks—she once cut herself off mid-conversation about them, not wanting to be boring. The film is also about a predator from the deep, echoing Leah's own marine transformation. Leah's flick of water at the shark's appearance is her only active, playful gesture in the chapter—a small sign that some part of her still connects with Miri. The scene also shows Miri's caregiving: she moves the television, sits on the mat, keeps her hand on the tub so Leah can touch her if she wants.