Luster

Once back inside the house, Rebecca excuses Edie upstairs. Edie overhears Rebecca and Eric’s conversation and begins to pack her things and contemplate spending the night in her storage container. Akila opens her door and motions for Edie to join her in her room. Akila warns Edie, “It’s going to be all night” (142). She also unveils that the family has been in intensive therapy. She asks Edie: “Please don’t mess this up” (142).

The next morning, Edie wakes up after falling asleep in Akila’s room. She wanders downstairs quietly and stumbles on Eric in the downstairs bathroom. Eric and Edie stare at each other in the mirror before he ignores her. She moves on with the day and attempts to ignore what has happened. She packs a few sandwiches and takes a train to Manhattan, where she arrives at a library. After passing through an exhibit called “Wartime Cognitive Dissonance and the Physiology of Dissent” (146), Edie reflects on her father’s struggles after serving in the navy and her “struggle to understand the blind anger and periods of profound withdrawal” (147). Edie also reveals that her mother was her father’s third wife.