The Good Girl

Colin is shocked that the police haven’t arrested him after years of robbery and dealing drugs. Mia tells him the names of trees and birds—“She teaches without meaning to” (220). She tells him about volunteering at a homeless shelter to see what it was like for a student of hers, who lived in a shelter on the North Side. They bond over the shared experience of knowing “how betrayal and disillusionment feel” (221).

Gabe looks at Kathryn’s phone records and finds nothing. An ex-girlfriend offers no information, and neither do neighbors in Gary. Old teachers have mixed recollections of Colin as a troubled child. Gabe asks for traffic footage for the route to Grand Marais, based on the postcard he found in Kathryn’s house. He keeps thinking about Kathryn in a nursing home and how she reminds him of his own mother. He waits for his next clue.

Colin finds Canoe and holds him hostage while he goes to the store. He calls an old friend to send him fake passports to cross the border. Colin talks about his childhood with his mother; he is upset he isn’t with her. He explains to Mia that opportunities in Gary are sparse. He worked for his uncle for a few years learning handyman work, but he needed more. He has little hope for anything more than survival: “I dreamed […] [o]f not stooping lower than I already was” (227). He gets upset thinking about putting his mother in a home—that is why he needed the $5,000. However, he knew that his mother would rather die than know he was responsible for the death of a young girl. He storms outside to get some fresh air.

Gabe comes over as Eve is untangling Christmas lights. He helps her with the task. They begin talking about the weather, and her time as a mother. She talks about the difficulty of raising kids virtually alone while James worked late and avoided the babies. Mia was a surprise. She cringes when Gabe calls her a homemaker, preferring to call herself “unemployed” (234). They talk about James’s selfishness. Eve begins to cry, and Gabe pulls her into a hug. She turns, nuzzles into his chest, and kisses him. He lets her kiss him for a moment, before pulling away. He explains that it isn’t about not wanting her—it’s about decorum. She watches as he drives away to a court case in the city.

Colin and Mia are stuck in a snowstorm that drops the temperature so low they blast heat in the truck to stay warm. In the truck, they talk about Mia’s mother—Colin notes she hasn’t mentioned her much. Mia calls her mother submissive and describes the “imperialistic” (244) relationship between her mother and father. She was raised an only child in a village in England, and James forced her to assimilate to life in America. Colin asks who might be looking for Mia, and she shrugs. She wonders if her family misses her. She asks Colin the same question. He shrugs, too.

Gabe looks at Mia’s drawing of a cat and decides he can use it to jog her memory. He asks a Grand Marais police officer to catch Canoe.

Colin opens up about his life of crime and his habits. Mia softens to him, realizing that he likely saved her life. She teaches Colin how to draw using her own face, and he makes an abstract portrait that she says looks like “a replica of Mrs. Potato Head” (251). She saves the drawing when he tries to throw it in the fire.

James grooms Mia into believing she wants an abortion. He is insistent and refuses to allow Eve into her bedroom to speak with her. He calls the “sinful child” a “bastard” and gives Mia pro-choice pamphlets despite his own conservative views (252). That Monday, he drags Mia out of bed to the gynecologist’s office to get an abortion. He has threatened the doctor to convince her to provide the procedure. He shoves Eve out of the way and takes her keys so she can’t follow them. Eve looks out the window as he and Mia drive away and hopes Mia will not follow through.

Colin’s cold clears up in two days, but Mia gets sicker with a cough and a fever. She dreams of her mother and calls out to her, as if her mother is there. Mia sleeps on the couch, and the cat stays close to her, keeping watch. One night she wakes up to use the bathroom and faints. Colin rushes to stop her head from hitting the floor and helps her use the bathroom. He carries her back to the couch. He knows that she needs antibiotics, but he has no idea what to do next.