58 pages • 1 hour read
Kathleen GlasgowGirl in Pieces
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Pages 103-166Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Pages 103-126 Summary
While looking for her own apartment and job in Tucson, Charlie attempts to implement some of the healthy coping mechanisms Casper taught her.
Mikey is away with his band when Charlie arrives in Tucson. Alone in his apartment on her first night, she recalls her first homeless night and panics; she punches her thighs “hoping the pain will snap me back in place” (108). After she eats, her panic recedes. Exhausted, she barricades the apartment door and falls asleep still wearing her coat as “protective armor, just in case” (108). On the pillow, she smells hints of Mikey and feels comforted.
The following day, Charlie buys a glass bottle of iced tea so that she can restock her tender kit. She wants to follow Casper’s advice and not hurt herself, but she wants the kit “just in case” (111). Her next stop is a food cooperative, where she begins feeling overwhelmed. Recalling Blue, she feels the “cereal is eating me alive” (112). Remembering Casper’s advice to stay in the moment, she uses breathing techniques, eventually finding her way back to Mikey’s apartment. After barricading the door, she breaks the tea bottle and stashes the broken glass in her kit. She takes out her drawing supplies and draws herself in the room.
Two days into her stay, the apartment’s owner, Ariel, stops by and tells Charlie that can only stay in the apartment for two weeks. Ariel gives Charlie the name of a shop in town that she knows is hiring.
At the shop, Charlie immediately understands that she does not fit in but asks the employees if they can recommend her somewhere appropriate. They send her to True Grit, a coffeehouse. There, a Van Morrison album that was a favorite of Charlie’s father is playing. She feels “a rush of longing for him” and almost cries (120).
Riley, the 27-year-old cook and former musician, flirts with Charlie. She feels an immediate connection to him but cannot speak, baffled that a handsome, confident man is paying attention to her. She tells Riley that she needs a job, and he agrees to try her out as a dishwasher.
Back at Mikey’s later, she sits outside with her sketchbook listening to a distant band practice. She recalls the thrill of hearing something being created when Mikey would take her and Ellis to hear his musician friends rehearse. The day’s events and past memories run through Charlie’s mind as she draws. Her father’s face comes to her, and she realizes that Riley has the same eyes as her father, kind but with “something quivering in the background” (125).
Part 2, Pages 127-148 Summary
Returning to True Grit for a second day builds Charlie’s self-esteem. A frightening incident with Riley sets her back emotionally.
The next morning, she draws before going to the coffeehouse. There, she meets Linus, another employee. Riley tries to engage her in conversation, but Charlie is suspicious of his motives. Sweaty from bussing trays and washing dishes, she rolls up her sleeves, and Riley sees her scars. She assumes that he will not want her back, but he tells her to return the following day to meet Julia, the owner and Riley’s sister.
Back at Mikey’s, Charlie showers, and her scars make her feel like “Frankenstein” (131). Ariel invites Charlie to dinner. Her home’s walls are covered in art that Charlie interprets as sad, and she wonders about Ariel’s life. Ariel asks Charlie’s opinion about the paintings, saying any experience of art is valid because it is personal. Ariel expresses condolences to Charlie for having lost her best friend, making Charlie feel slightly betrayed that Mikey told Ariel. Ariel notices that Charlie internalizes her memories and feelings until she is so full that she explodes. When Ariel remarks how young Charlie is, she abruptly leaves the house, feeling that she allowed Ariel to get too close. On her way out, she steals a plaster cross encrusted with skulls.
Feeling overwhelmed, she longs for “the safety of my kit” (137). Recalling Casper’s advice that repetitive motion “can help soothe your nerves,” Charlie rocks back and forth (137). She knows that she needs to avoid feeling “overwhelmed” and “powerless,” “shame and emptiness,” because they are triggers (138). She remembers the importance of taking one step at a time and lists each forward step she has taken since arriving at the hospital.
At True Grit the next day, Linus tells Charlie the rules, including keeping an eye on Riley, who has a drinking problem. Charlie feels proud of herself for having found a job. She and Linus bond over a joke, and Linus assures Charlie that Julia will love her, adding, “We are all fifty kinds of messed up here” (142).
When Riley hasn’t shown up by 8:30 a.m., Linus sends Riley to get him because he does not have a phone. His bungalow is filled with cigarette butts and books. A calendar reminds Charlie how far she has come in forty-five days. She finds Riley seemingly asleep on a futon. When he does not respond to his name, Charlie leans closer, and he grabs her. Recalling Frank and the man who tried to rape her, Charlie twists away and stomps on his foot. Riley says that he was “just playing around,” but when she begins crying, he realizes something has happened in her past and apologizes (146). She tells him that Linus sent her to bring him to work then flees from the apartment.
As she rides her bike back to the coffee house, it occurs to her that he may have been waiting for her. She longs to cut but does not want to undo her progress and returns to True Grit. Seeing Charlie alone confirms Linus’ fears that Riley was using. She does not say what, but Charlie notes that it turned him mean.
Part 2, Pages 149-166 Summary
Charlie is officially hired at True Grit, experiences a connection with Riley, and discovers that Blue has reached out to her.
After the breakfast rush, Julia interviews Charlie. She notices something between Riley and Charlie because he is not flirting with her as he usually would. Julia asks Charlie why she is in Tucson, and Charlie blurts out that she “messed up,” tried to kill herself,” and now needs a job (152). Assuming Julia will no longer want to hire her, she starts taking off her apron, but Julia’s eyes are “kind and sad” (152). She puts a lapis lazuli stone into Charlie’s hand, telling her that it has healing properties, then gives her paperwork to fill out for payroll and a schedule of her shifts.
When Charlie returns to work, Riley tells her that she could have told him the truth about her scars, saying, “I’m no stranger to fucking up” (154). Patrons bait him to tell a funny story about vomiting on Adam Levine; meanwhile, Charlie is touched by his words, realizing they have something in common.
After work, Charlie researches apartments and realizes they are much more expensive that she had hoped or can afford. She goes to the public library to steal soap and toilet paper and use the computer. She finds a supportive email from Casper and replies, then is surprised that Blue has also emailed her.
The following day, Charlie draws Ellis before work. After her shift, she goes to a food bank. A line of mothers and children waiting for it to open for dinner is already full, but Charlie stocks up on household items. She draws until dark then goes to the dumpster behind the food cooperative to fill her backpack with rejected produce. She notices a man in the alley; it is Riley. He does not speak to her, but the next day, he gives her a bag of food, telling her to ask if she is hungry and stay out of dark alleys.
Hoping to find an affordable apartment, Charlie goes for a walk in a neighborhood that is less well-kept than Mikey’s and sees a “for rent” sign. A “crumbly” elderly man, Leonard, shows her the room (163). It is dilapidated and dirty but affordable. Charlie is scared. She does not know what questions to ask or whether this is a good or bad place. It is neither the worst nor the best she has ever lived in, but she accepts. Leonard smiles, and Charlie notes that “[h]e seems so nice and honest” (166).
Part 2, Pages 103-166 Analysis
The narrative throughout Part 2 unfolds chronologically. It represents a striving for order, putting things in their proper place, that resists the chaotic fragmentation of Charlie’s memories in Part 1. In addition, the tightness, or lack, of chronological structure throughout the novel makes it clear when Charlie is struggling emotionally and when she is doing better. The more fragmented the narrative, the less present and lucid she is in the story she is telling about her life.
When she arrives in Tucson, Charlie intends to take control of her life but struggles with lack of resources. Without insurance and a sufficient income, she cannot pay for support services, but she does not sign up to attend any free groups either. She restocks her tender kit in case she feels the need for release, but she also makes an effort to implement Casper’s healthy coping mechanisms, using repetitive motion and drawing to comfort and distract herself when she feels the impulse to self-harm. When she arrives at the shop Ariel sends her to and realizes that she does not fit it, Charlie does not panic. She asks the shop women for suggestions and follows through on them, going to True Grit and securing a job trial. Similarly, when she panics at the food cooperative, she uses breathing exercises to remain calm and find her way back to Mikey’s apartment. Charlie is making an effort to break out of her unhealthy habits, but it is a struggle, amplified by her being alone, without support.
Ariel, though well-meaning, triggers Charlie by calling her young, “just a baby” (135). Charlie leaves at that point because Ariel is highlighting Charlie’s vulnerability. She may be “[s]o young” and “just a baby,” but she is on her own, effectively if not legally an adult (136). Being reminded of her youth feels overwhelming and scary. Ariel could be someone who helps Charlie. She is an artist and someone who clearly, from her paintings, has experienced pain, but the timing and circumstances are not right, partly because of how Ariel approaches her and partly because of Charlie’s specific traumas.
Part 2 highlights Charlie’s trust issues. Mikey warns Charlie about Riley and encourages her to befriend people who are in a good place in their lives, but she finds it difficult to relate to people who she sees as healthy and whole, and even when she does, as could be the case with Ariel, Charlie finds it difficult to trust people. Because she has been exploited before, she is suspicious of others’ motives.
This is evident in her interactions with Riley and Linus. Riley’s actions will eventually reveal him to be unworthy of Charlie’s trust, while Linus will show the opposite. Charlie cannot make good judgments about who to trust, however, because the trauma of her past experiences continues to exert a strong influence on her actions and choices. She is drawn to Riley because he reminds her of her father. This should be a red flag because her father struggled with mental illness and died by suicide. Signs quickly surface that Riley is not well—his withdrawal symptoms, his ability to turn cruel, and the intimation of financial issues. Charlie’s attraction to him is complicated. Her dysfunctional relationship with her father is part of it, along with her low self-image, fear that she is unworthy of being loved by someone stable, and a lure she feels toward danger that is never fully explained.
The narrative also foregrounds how poverty becomes a cycle that is difficult to break and that amplifies other problems: Charlie works, but her income is not enough to pay for her rent, food, and other necessities. The food bank helps supplement some essentials, but it is not enough. Fear that she will not be able to pay her rent weighs heavily on Charlie, and she is constantly staving off panic that she will end up homeless again. Her fear and panic make her vulnerable to Riley when he asks her to keep silent about his obvious withdrawal symptoms and drug use. Lack of resources makes it more difficult for Charlie to break out of her unhealthy patterns.
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