How It All Goes Down
- The next morning Ray wakes up in his room, where he's curled up with Ruth, his world changed.
- Around three he had woken up and read Ruth's journal, with its details of murdered women and girls.
- At the hospital, Buckley is wheeling Jack out to the car followed by Lindsey and Abigail.
- Ruana is thinking about divorcing her husband when she hears Ruth and Ray moving about upstairs. When they come down, she gives them pie and coffee.
- Hal, Buckley, Lynn, and Samuel are at home, waiting for the newly reunited family to return from the hospital. Lynn has the champagne out for the occasion.
- Hal's brought a drum set for Buckley, an early thirteenth birthday present.
- Susie watches her family arrive home.
- When Lindsey and Abigail are getting Jack's bags from the trunk, Lindsey asks her mother if she'll hurt Jack again.
- Abigail says she'll try not to. Lindsey tells her she knows she had an affair with Fenerman.
- When Abigail gets into the house, she goes straight to Susie's old bedroom, to tell Susie she loves her, then joins the others downstairs.
- Over champagne, Samuel toasts everybody, and says how proud and happy he is to be marrying Lindsey, and he kisses her in front of everybody.
- Susie tells us, "These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections […] that happened after I was gone" (23.79).
- Hal notices Ray and Ruana outside the house, dropping off a pie on the porch. He opens the door to invite them in.
- While Susie's loved ones enjoy each other's company, Ruth roams the cornfield, thinking of Susie.
- Later, Samuel tells Ray and Ruana about his plans to renovate the old Victorian house where he and Lindsey got engaged.
- Ray tells him that Ruth's dad owns the house. Samuel is amazed.
- And then Susie's stops watching.