Gerald's Game

Jessie wakes up, and she does not see anyone in the room with her. It is still night, and Ruth’s voice insists that no one was in the room, despite her fear when she thought there was a man in the room. Jessie thinks that it was her father, Tom, though he has been dead for over a decade. Goody’s voice agrees with Jessie, and although the Ruth voice laughs at them, Goody says that she recognizes Tom’s smell. She says the smell is neither the metallic smell of the lake nor the smell of blood, but she does not specify the smell before Jessie falls asleep again.

On July 19, 1963, the day before the eclipse, Jessie arranges to spend the next day with her father by convincing her mother to let the two of them stay behind while the family goes to Mount Washington to view the eclipse. Jessie really wants to spend the day with Tom, noting how he likes her lipstick and speaks to her in French. Tom requests that Jessie wear her new sundress, which she says is too tight because she is growing faster than expected at age 10.

Tom suggests the plan to Sally while Jessie is sitting outside within earshot.