The Nature of Fragile Things

Sophie half-wishes that she had never opened the door to Belinda two hours ago. She is devastated at the fact that she woke up “this morning the mother of a little girl who needs me and loves me,” but she is now “just another pitiful soul Martin Hocking has trampled upon” (128). Meanwhile, Belinda is horrified that Martin would pretend to Kat that her mother was dead. Sophie assumes there is a selfish motivation behind it.

Sophie comes to terms with the fact that Kat will need to be reunited with her mother, but first they should find out what is in the boiler room. They go into the boiler room and, breaking the glass bottles, discover that there is gold inside them. Sophie speculates that Belinda’s father found gold in their local mine before he died, and that Martin somehow found out and sought out Belinda. Belinda recalls that her father wanted to show her something on the day that he died. Sophie affirms that the gold is Belinda’s, and that Martin was going to steal it from her. At first light, they will leave the place and call the police. Belinda insists that Sophie should keep the gold, as she will have nothing else in the morning.

Meanwhile, Kat has gotten hold of Candace’s letter and is sounding out the words. She is crying and whispers “Mama,” but not to Sophie (138).

Sophie puts her feelings aside, reassuring Kat that she will take her to Candace. As Kat processes the fact that Candace did not die, Sophie remembers that Mrs. Lewis said that Kat thought Candace’s death was her fault. Sophie thinks that Martin is the culprit of such a misunderstanding. She calls the medical facility and confirms that Candace is alive and able to receive visitors. Sophie packs and includes the pieces of gold ore in her belongings.

All three of them sleep in Sophie’s room that night. Sophie is devastated that she will no longer be Kat’s mother and wonders whether Candace will let her care for Kat during her convalescence. She then hears a lock turning the key and realizes with dread that Martin is home.

Sophie tells Martin that she is taking Kat back to her mother in Arizona, adding that she has told the police of his deeds and that he would be wise to go. He does not appear shocked to find Belinda there, as Elliot tipped him off as to her whereabouts. Belinda confronts him furiously about what he has done to all three of them and for pretending that Candace is dead. Martin coldly replies that “it is easier to remove obstacles that complicate my endeavors than to tolerate them” (147). At this moment, Sophie can see that she and Belinda are obstacles, and Martin will not hesitate to dispatch them—the way he did Annabeth. Sophie wonders whether Martin will harm Kat too, but her instinct tells her that he needs his daughter for some reason.

Martin lunges toward Belinda, attempting to use the letter opener in her hand as a weapon, and Sophie has a flashback to a similarly charged moment in Donaghadee. Moments later, Martin is at the bottom of the staircase—Kat pushed him to protect Belinda’s unborn child. Belinda, who did not see what happened, asks if Martin is okay, and Sophie says that he merely had a nasty fall, and that she is to go with Kat while Sophie helps him. She insists that they will still leave and take the journey as planned. Then, she tells Kat that it is her father’s own fault that he fell, because “he was angry, and he wasn’t watching what he was doing” (149).

When the other two are gone and Martin opens his eyes, Sophie insists on knowing why he married her and why he took Kat from Los Angeles. He does not reply. She tells him that they will go on the journey as planned, and if luck is on his side, he will get up and leave; if luck is on her side, he will be dead on his way to hell. He says that he knows that Sophie is on the run, even though she does not speak of her secrets to anyone.

As Sophie contemplates leaving, she feels a tremor under the house and almost imagines that the earth is opening up beneath her. She calls for Kat, who is upstairs with Belinda. The three of them escape the house, but Belinda clings to her stomach and appears to have gone into labor. Sophie senses she is re-living a past moment of going into labor herself.

When the quaking is over, Sophie tries to protect Kat. Belinda has gone into labor a month early, and they must find a hospital. However, everything around them is in ruins. On their way down the hill, they see that the earthquake has been a catastrophe with many casualties. They arrive at the Central Emergency Hospital to find that it does not exist, and they must follow the trail of patients to the pavilion. When Belinda complains of the pain, Sophie acknowledges that she does “know how it hurts” and sweeps away a memory from another time (163). Although the women in the female ward agree to help Belinda, it is a hellish scene, as the pavilion is doubling as a morgue.

There is a second tremor—the aftershock. Belinda nears the point of delivery, and Sophie knows enough about birthing to advise her. Belinda gives birth to a tiny but healthy little girl. Kat, who wants to name the baby Sarah, hands over her doll’s dress and is eager to hold her and sing her the Gaelic lullaby that Sophie taught her. Then, the pavilion’s roof catches fire.

A policeman carries a swooning Belinda out, and Kat and Sophie follow and seek refuge in Golden Gate Park along with countless other refugees. However, Sophie and Kat get separated from Belinda and the baby as the fire continues to rage. Sophie tears out a page from her father’s word book and puts up a notice on a board, telling Belinda that she and Kat are looking for her. People are congenial, helping each other out with food and shelter. Sophie tries to comfort Kat, telling her she will still take her to her mother. Kat breathes out the word “Father,” and Sophie says he is not here (179). When Kat asks where he is, Sophie utters, “I sent him on his way” (180).

Sophie learns that the fires are moving closer to Polk Street and their house. She wonders whether Martin will be found alive. She cannot find Belinda or any other sign of her. Kat has remained wordless and “wears a vacant look […] as if she’s evaporating, disappearing into the ashes and smoke” (183). Sophie feels an urgency to reunite Kat and Candace, even though she does not want to do this.

At the refugee camp, Sophie finally finds Belinda and the baby. Belinda asks after Martin and wonders whether he is still in the house. Belinda is deeply upset over the possibility that they killed Martin; however, Sophie insists that it was the earthquake’s fault.

The women walk to the east of the bay to the ferry building and see that the city is decimated and nearly unrecognizable. On the ferry, Sophie contemplates her original journey to San Francisco and how her old life is over.

This chapter returns to Sophie’s interview with Logan. Logan asks Sophie to confess the other illegal things, besides using a fake I.D., that her husband has done. She tells him that she found papers and a photograph showing that Martin married a woman on a Colorado cattle ranch to get her inheritance. She adds that she does not think that the woman’s deadly riding incident was accidental. The marshal then asks her what she thinks Martin’s motives were in marrying all these women. He knows that Sophie is now living at Belinda’s inn, and that they have struck up a friendship.

Sophie admits to Logan that she married Martin out of necessity, while Belinda married him out of love. Sophie is ready to go, but the marshal advises her to finish the interview because, whereas Belinda was due to inherit a goldmine and Candace had a fortune bequeathed to her by a grandmother, Sophie was penniless. Sophie also comes under suspicion because while the other wives loved Martin, she is adamant that she does not.

Oakland, where the group has sailed to, has become another refugee point. The women and girls must wait until midmorning the next day before they can ride a train to Belinda’s hometown. They take the train to San Mateo and then a cab to the Loralei Inn. Elliot greets them at the inn. Sophie offers to take Kat and Sarah for a walk, while Belinda explains James’s absence to Elliot.

According to Belinda, Elliot told her that when Martin/James learned Belinda had gone to San Francisco, he left immediately, to prevent the two women meeting. However, he arrived far later than expected, owing to a motoring inconvenience. Elliot knows the full story about Sophie and Kat and offers to accompany her to Tucson if she does not want to go alone. Though touched by the gesture, Sophie wants to spend her last hours with Kat alone. Sophie promises to return to the inn after but says that she will also need to go back to San Francisco to check the remains of the house and to see what happened to Martin.

Sophie can see that Kat’s heart “is painfully torn in two,” as she must choose between Candace and Sophie (215). Belinda also finds the goodbye with Kat heart-wrenching. In parting, Kat holds Sarah fondly.

While driving Kat and Sophie to the station, Elliot confesses that Belinda is the only one he will love for the rest of his life. He says that he can wait for Belinda to love him back.

Kat and Sophie take a train to Tucson via Los Angeles. Tucson is a hot, dry place, fit for anyone with tuberculosis. Sophie prepares Kat and tells her that whatever happens, she will visit and bring along Belinda and the baby. She also tells her that she will always love her as a daughter. Kat nods but is silent.

Sophie learns from the cab driver that Candace’s hospital is one of many. They are permitted to see Candace from a distance and are told that they will only catch tuberculosis if they breathe the air she coughs. The nurse tells Sophie that Candace has been in poor health since her father’s death in an automobile accident in Los Angeles. Sophie immediately wonders if Martin had a hand in this misfortune.

As Sophie prepares Kat to meet her sickly mother, her heart feels like it will tear in two.

Kat initially looks at her waif-like mother warily and tightens her grip on Sophie’s hand, until her mother calls her by her pet name “Kitty Kat” (229). When Kat starts to edge away from Sophie and toward her mother, Sophie feels ambivalent over losing Kat. Candace asks who Sophie is and whether Martin is coming. Sophie keeps the conversation light and can see that Candace is disconcerted by the love between her child and Sophie. She asks whether Martin is dead, and Sophie tries to gauge what she already knows. She implies that Martin died in the earthquake and says that she has so much to tell Candace. She tells Candace the story of how she answered Martin’s advertisement in the paper. She also explains how Kat stopped talking when Martin somehow made her think that Candace’s death was her fault. Candace insists on knowing why Sophie married someone she did not know. Sophie replies, that after getting her heart badly broken once, she sought only human comforts for her happiness. Sophie then tells Candace about Belinda and the woman in Colorado. When Candace hears all this, she whispers to herself that her father was right about Martin marrying her for her grandmother’s inheritance.

Candace reveals that she was the one who suggested marriage after becoming pregnant with Martin’s child. Her father said that he would disinherit Candace before Martin got her money. She did not hear from her father, even when her son died after six months in a stillbirth. Sophie can empathize because she too has had that experience. Candace was depressed, and Martin assured her that another child would fix things. However, her second son was also stillborn. She fell into a deep depression and almost did not care when she became pregnant with Kat. She pronounces herself “a terrible mother to my little Kitty Kat” (239). She felt that she had no love to give and almost tried to drown herself before Kat’s fourth birthday. Then, she attended an orgy of opium and sex with people she met on the beach at Venice Midway, where she also picked up tuberculosis.

While Candace’s father sent her to a medical facility, Martin was against this because he wanted her dead sooner so that Kat would inherit the trust faster. Sophie, however, wonders why Martin left Los Angeles for San Francisco. Candace speculates that this happened because her father was beginning to build a case against Martin. Sophie is still confused as to why Martin would marry a poor woman like her.

Candace finally asks what happened to Martin. First, Sophie implores her to understand that her actions were in Kat’s service. She tells Candace almost everything but is “vague about how Martin fell, telling Candace only that when he lunged at us there had been a struggle and he lost his footing” (243). She emphasizes that Martin wanted to harm Belinda and the child she carried—the child that Kat already loved as a sister. Sophie allows Candace to guess that Kat was the one who pushed her father. This is why they must stop the police from asking questions.

Candace does not believe that Kat would commit such an act. Sophie emphasizes that she wanted Kat to leave while Martin was still alive, not to have her think herself responsible for the death of a parent. Candace can see that Sophie loves Kat and marvels that she brought the girl, even as Candace’s disease will likely kill her. Sophie offers to bring Kat to visit Candace every day.

Candace pays for their stay at the Desert Rose Inn. She asks many questions about Kat and whether she misses Martin. Sophie tells Candace about her family in Ireland. Sophie affirms that her mother wanted her to leave Ireland, using rural poverty as an excuse, but she hints that there is another reason.

Sophie learns that Kat does not talk to her mother either. On one occasion, Kat grabs Sophie’s arm and whispers “come” (255). Candace asks to see Sophie’s father’s word book. On encountering the word “redamancy,” which means “loving someone deeply and having that love returned in full,” asks about the nature of Sophie’s heartbreak (256). Sophie decides to share a fraction of her secret with Candace. She tells her about Colm, a fisherman from her village whom she married before she was 18. Her happiness with him evaporated when he became violent toward her. This continued even when she was pregnant, and she lost the baby when it came too soon. Sophie tells Candace that Colm got drunk and fell off his boat and drowned. While Sophie has not told Candace the whole truth, she is satisfied that she has not lied to her.