51 pages • 1 hour read
Barbara O'NealWhen We Believed in Mermaids: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 29-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary: “Mari”
Mari drives to Sapphire House to stay for the night. As she makes herself tea, she thinks about her mother. She has hated her mother for a long time, but now she remembers a softer side of her mother. It was the day of the earthquake. Mari’s mother had taken her to have an abortion, and then they stopped to have ice cream. As Mari’s mother attempted to console her, the earthquake struck. Mari was hit with debris on her head, causing a split in the skin above her eyebrow. They made their way out onto the street. A woman approached and told them Mari would need sutures, but it would be a long time before help could reach them. Concerned about their father and Kit, Mari’s mother went in search of a phone, but she couldn’t get through to the house or restaurant. Eventually, paramedics came and sutured Mari’s brow. Then they got a ride to Eden but found the buildings had slid off the cliff. Kit was there, alive and safe, but their father had been inside the house when it fell.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Kit”
Mari picks up Kit and they argue because Mari suggests that Kit and Javier look like a happy couple, but Kit still resists the idea of a long-term relationship with Javier. Mari tells her that not every relationship is like their parents’ relationship, but Kit doesn’t want to hear it. Kit and Mari surf for a while, then decide to call their mother. Before they do, Mari confesses to Kit what Billy Zondervan did to her when she was nine. Mari says she only told Dylan. When Kit questions why Dylan hadn’t told anyone, they recall his motorcycle accident and Kit suggests that Dylan had been trying to end his own life with that accident. They both recognize how abuse had broken Dylan, and that they tried to save him but couldn’t.
Mari and Kit share a quick meal before calling their mother inside Mari’s car. Kit and Mari’s mother is excited to know Mari is alive, and equally excited to hear she is a grandmother. Mari expresses gratitude to her mother for helping her the day of the earthquake, and Mari’s mother is overwhelmed with emotion.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Mari”
Mari drives Kit back to her high-rise building. On the way, Mari tells Kit that the day of the earthquake, she had an abortion because she was only 15 and she was pregnant by Dylan. Mari explains that Dylan was dead by then and she didn’t know what else to do. She also confesses that Dylan was disturbed by what they’d done and never spoke to her again. Kit tells Mari that Mari should have told her about Billy and the baby because she could have helped her.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Kit”
Two weeks before the earthquake, Kit found Dylan’s body on the beach. It is implied he died by suicide via drowning. She sat beside him and told him how much better he made her life. She thanked him for helping her get to school every day and for teaching her to surf. She took the bracelet she’d given him in fourth grade off his wrist. She saw his spirit walking with Cinder, and she waved before they disappeared.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Mari”
Mari is at Sapphire House going through the magazine boxes in Helen’s bedroom when Simon arrives. She calmly tells Simon the entire truth of her past. When she is done, Simon informs her that he is going to file for divorce. Mari argues with him, insisting that their marriage is a good one and they can survive this. After a time, Simon relents and agrees to allow Mari to come home but warns her he might not be able to forgive her. However, he admits that he loves her, and hopes they will work it out.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Kit”
Kit is devastated about Mari’s information about Dylan. Kit sees things about Dylan’s behavior that undermines her belief in who he was. Kit packs her things and buys an airline ticket. She goes to Javier and tells him she’s leaving. When she tells him that their relationship was just a holiday fling, he denies it by showing her the passion that exists between them. He asks for her email so he can keep in touch with her.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Kit”
A month later, after a long night at the emergency room, Kit goes surfing. Kit has been unsettled since returning from New Zealand and unhappy in her work. Her memories of Dylan have been ruined by Mari’s revelations, and she doesn’t know how to reconcile the two versions of him she now knows. She struggles likewise with her relationship with Mari. She thinks maybe she might stop being a doctor and go back to her first love of marine life.
When Kit is done surfing, she cleans up and heads over to her mother’s home for breakfast. When she arrives, she is shocked to find Mari, Sarah, Simon, and Leo are there. She is equally surprised to find Javier there as well. Her mother tells her this is an intervention to prove to her that she is no longer alone. Simon tells everyone that Mari solved the mystery of Veronica Parker’s death. It was her lover, George, who killed her in a fit of jealousy over Veronica’s affair with a carpenter.
Javier takes Kit for a walk and tells her that he is in love with her. She admits she loves him, too, but is afraid. He promises that they are soulmates and tells her that a person can have many soulmates. He tells her that Mari and Sarah are two of her soulmates.
Epilogue Summary: “Kit”
Chapter 29-Epilogue Analysis
While Dylan is a side character who remains static throughout the novel because of his death, he is an important character in regard to the impact of his existence on Kit and Josie’s lives. Dylan became brother and parent to Kit and Josie when they were very young and remained their protector throughout their childhood even as he struggled with his own demons. In addition to the responsibility of two young girls, Dylan also had the knowledge of Josie’s sexual assault and the sexual intimacy he and Josie shared, as well as his drug use. Kit can look back and see the suicidal ideation that was visible throughout Dylan’s latter months of life, but there was no one present in the moment to help Dylan through this.
Suicide was foreshadowed as the cause of Dylan’s death earlier in the novel, but the impact of that act couldn’t be felt until seen through Kit’s eyes. Kit’s description of finding Dylan on the beach returns the reader to Kit’s recurring dream of seeing Dylan surfing the perfect wave and the happiness she imagined he felt in the moments before the wave broke apart.
While Dylan’s death had a profound impact on Kit’s life, it also had lasting impact on Josie. It is clear that Josie blamed herself for Dylan’s death and regretted her decision to coax him into a sexual act. Josie can see how this moment took a toll on Dylan, but even Josie wasn’t mature enough at the time to understand that it wasn’t just one thing that led to Dylan’s death, but many things that added up over time. While Kit and Josie were neglected by their parents, Dylan was neglected by everyone who claimed to love him. Dylan’s death not only highlights the impact of mental health issues on young people but also reveals how Dylan and Josie protected Kit, sheltering her in ways that kept her safe, but also abandoned her to a life of isolation.
In the end, while Kit suffered from Dylan’s death, her father’s death, the loss of her dog, and the heartbreak of first love, the true source of her childhood trauma was the abandonment of everyone who loved her. Like Dylan, Kit was pushed aside and forgotten. While Josie and Dylan thought they were protecting her, they only created a false sense of security that disappeared as soon as Dylan and Josie got lost in their own trauma. Kit spent her adolescent years alone and isolated, and this isolation continued into her adult life. While learning the truth about Josie and Dylan doesn’t make this abandonment better, it does offer explanations that allow Kit to alter her perception of her loved one and her past and help her open to the possibility of a future with Javier. At the end of the novel, the sisters are both in a better place to cope with their past trauma and move forward with their lives.
