Arcadia

Years later, the world has deteriorated due to climate change: Coastal cities are unlivable, and thousands of refugees from Florida and New Orleans flood inland cities. Abe has created a stocked bunker in Bit’s basement—including a gun. Grete is 14 and temperamental. She comes home past curfew and drunk, and takes out her frustration on Bit. The phone rings and when Bit hangs up, he tells Grete to pack a bag. He was uninformed of Hannah’s ALS, and after a year of struggling with it, she and Abe wrote Bit a suicide note and overdosed on pills together. Abe is dead, but Hannah is in a coma. She wakes up from her coma, and Jincy and Astrid visit. They all return to Arcadia for Abe’s memorial service. Bit is both happy and disturbed to reunite with so many Arcadians. He walks around Arcadia, remembering his childhood. He wonders what to do about Hannah: Bit wants to take care of her but is also angry at her and Abe’s suicide attempt. Astrid helps him arrange a temporary move back to Arcadia, where a nurse, Luisa, has been hired to take care of Hannah; Grete will change schools.

An airborne virus that started in Indonesia (SARI) has now spread all over Asia, killing thousands instantly. Meanwhile, Hannah refuses to leave her bed; her nurse is stern but empathetic. Grete starts her new school. One day, she and Bit force Hannah out of bed and into a bathtub. Bit reminds Hannah that he’s supported her before, during Arcadian winters when she wouldn’t feed him. She says it’s cruel of him to force her to live, but he asks that she do for Grete’s sake. She slowly takes better care of herself, while Grete struggles at school. Her old friends grow tired of her tearful phone calls and stop answering. Jincy visits but warns Bit that they’ll all likely be quarantined soon. One night, when Luisa is off duty, Hannah struggles to breathe. Bit calls her doctor, a former Amish woman named Ellis. Ellis appreciates the beauty of Arcadia and is a good doctor to Hannah. Bit tells her Arcadia’s history, which she’s heard about through rumors: Recently, Leif disappeared during a high-altitude balloon ride, and since then, his company moved and Arcadia returned to wilderness. Ellis offers to perform more regular checkups, as she likes seeing Bit too. Hannah’s ALS symptoms worsen, but she finds joy in watching Grete run with her high school track team.

SARI spreads around the world, but Arcadia is safe in the wilderness. Gloria, an Amish librarian, arrives with a new computer designed for Hannah’s loss of speech. Gloria recalls Arcadia from her younger years, and how terrified the Amish community had been for the starving children. Ellis spends more time at Bit’s house, and the pair grow closer. Grete convinces Bit to run with her so he can start taking better care of himself. Hannah’s condition continues to worsen and despite the danger of going to a hospital, a public space, Luisa and Bit rush her to the emergency room when she starts choking on air. Bit meets Gloria’s husband, who recognizes Bit from their youth, when Bit and his Arcadian friends gave two Amish teenagers weed. Now, they smoke weed together as adults.

Hannah grows smaller and weaker, but even so, “her soul is rising to the surface. There is fire there, [Bit] sees. An ecstasy” (280). She tells Bit not to be afraid because she is not. Later, Bit and Ellis have sex. She openly admits she stays with the family for Bit, not Hannah. Astrid decides it’s time to end Hannah’s pain: She gives Hannah enough morphine to kill her. In the aftermath, a depressed Bit replays memories of his childhood in Arcadia, when he was happy and loved by many; some of these loved ones visit, but he stays in bed. A week later, Grete tells him that it’s time to return to the real world. The SARI pandemic is over, and Bit takes a final walk around Arcadia to relish his memories. Now hopeful, he brings Grete to Verda’s abandoned cabin.