Chapter 22 Summary: Vi — July 19, 1978
⚠️ 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 Eric bursting through the back door, shouting that there's a fire. He claims he was trying to build a warming cage for injured animals with a candle in the old hutch. Gran, startled out of her office, rushes to the sunroom—leaving her purse and keys on her desk, exactly as Vi had hoped. Vi slips in, grabs the keys, and hides outside beneath the kitchen window to listen.
Gran refuses to call the fire department, instead phoning Miss Ev. When Miss Ev and Sal arrive, they organize a bucket brigade. Iris emerges from the house, drawn to the flames like a moth, wearing her orange hat and light-blue pajamas. She begins to shriek and then runs into the woods. Gran chases her, ordering Sal to stay behind and handle the fire.
This is all part of a carefully orchestrated plan. Vi takes off running to the Inn, where Patty meets her at the back door. Patty confirms only she and Sheila are inside and that Sal is away. Vi shows Patty the key labeled B WEST.
Vi enters the basement using the BSMNT key. The basement is a stark contrast to the rest of the Inn—dungeon-like, with green brick walls, buzzing fluorescent lights, and a strong smell of bleach. She passes rooms with hospital beds bolted to the floor, leather restraints, and an ECT machine. She recognizes one of the doors from Iris's drawing—a rectangle with a dark rectangle and two circles, which Vi now understands was a drawing of someone looking through a window into a room.
She finds a break room with Gran's liverwurst sandwich and magazines addressed to Dr. Hildreth. Then she opens the locked B-Office, where she finds a file cabinet full of folders marked MAYFLOWER.
The files document years of experiments on patients referred to by letters. Treatments include sodium amytal, Metrazol, electroconvulsive therapy, sensory deprivation, cold water therapy, hypnosis, and surgeries. Vi recognizes the handwriting as Gran's. She realizes these were experiments, not cures—people were tortured.
She finds a file on Patient I, a 36-year-old transient with a history of alcohol abuse, and recognizes him as Old Mac. His scar matches Iris's.
In the third drawer, she finds a note from Gran about the Mayflower Project's failure to find the right subject—until now. Patient S is