What Comes After

Isaac gets a call at school from a friend of his aunt, insisting that he come to Pennsylvania and persuade his aunt to go to a care home. He tells Evangeline that evening about his aunt and how he’ll be gone for a week. Evangeline is hurt and scared and lashes out at him. He tries to reassure her, but she tells him that she hated Daniel and that he couldn’t be the father. Isaac goes to his study to take time in silence, struck by the level of anger she expressed toward Daniel.

They talk later, when their tempers have cooled. He agrees to let her stay alone in the house with Rufus while he’s gone but insists on setting up a responsible adult woman neighbor in case of emergency. He thinks about the options, and the only reasonable one is Lorrie Geiger. He goes to her house late that evening. Lorrie invites him in, apologizing for the slight mess in her kitchen, and he asks if she’ll look in on Evangeline while he’s gone. She immediately agrees. He accidentally reveals Evangeline’s pregnancy, and Lorrie reassures him that it’s important for her to know and shows no sign of judgment. She offers to let Evangeline stay with them but immediately retracts it, apologizing when she realizes that the only room she has is Jonah’s. Isaac counters that she and Nells can stay at his house if necessary. On his way home, he thinks he sees something alive in the woods, but it’s only a barrel that had been used as a burn barrel when Daniel was missing.

Evangeline doesn’t mind being alone in the house with Rufus. She’s gotten comfortable with the dog, though she regularly reminds herself that he’s just making sure he gets fed. Sometimes they both stand near the door to the upstairs, as though it might explain Daniel’s death. One evening, Lorrie comes over with a bowl of salad. Evangeline is initially irritated that Lorrie knows about the pregnancy, which she realizes when Lorrie asks how she’s feeling. Evangeline is a bit concerned about some bleeding but keeps it to herself. A couple days later, Lorrie comes back with another salad. Evangeline invites her in, and Lorrie convinces her that accepting the food is a favor to Lorrie rather than a charity for Evangeline. Lorrie directly addresses the pregnancy, disarming Evangeline, and they begin to bond.

Just before Isaac leaves, Evangeline apologizes for what she said about Daniel. Isaac thinks about how Daniel’s popularity allowed him to get away with things that others might not. On the plane, he thinks about his father’s depression following his mother’s death. His father spent hours in the evening alone in the den in silence, and Isaac sat with him sometimes, trying to find the father he’d lost when his mother died. One night, his father wept and held Isaac’s hand, but Isaac was rigid, surprised by the physical affection. His father never touched him again.

The next time Lorrie comes over, Evangeline invites her in easily. Lorrie asks her about school, and she says that chemistry is boring. Lorrie commiserates given her own coursework in nursing. Lorrie then probes Evangeline until she tells her about the spotting. Lorrie has her call the after-hours nurse line, and the nurse tells her to call her doctor in the morning. Lorrie says that she’ll take her to her appointment the next day and tells her to call if she needs anything. Evangeline asks if she hurt the baby, and Lorrie hugs her tightly, reassuring her that she’s doing everything she can.

Jonah thinks about his mother and how he always felt that she judged him, even though she showed no signs of doing so overtly. Once, he blamed her for the judgment he felt in the world, and she told him that it was up to him whether he allowed her mistakes to define him. He remembers his father bringing home a brand-new truck, realizing that his mother must have been furious, but she stayed calm. They still had the truck when his father slapped his mother in the parking lot. When bystanders rush to help, she convinced them that she fell, that Roy tried to catch her, and that she hit her face on the tailgate. They were so convincing that even Jonah began to believe the lie. The loving hug they shared afterward was the first moment he began to accept evil and violence.

Lorrie takes Evangeline to the doctor, who says that she’s fine and should take it easy for a couple of days. Lorrie asks if they can pick up her daughter afterward. When they get to the middle school to pick up Nells, Evangeline realizes that Lorrie is Jonah’s mother. She tries to get out and walk home, but Lorrie won’t let her. Evangeline makes up an excuse and hides in the house when Lorrie comes with a salad the next night.

Isaac lies on his bed in his motel room, having spent two weeks getting his aunt a placement in a memory care center. He looks at a photo of his father and Daniel, beginning to question who was withholding affection in his relationships. He recalls a heated exchange with Daniel at the beginning of senior year when Daniel downplayed a bad grade on a quiz. Isaac reacted judgmentally, and Daniel yelled at Isaac that he used religion as an excuse to distance himself from his loved ones.

Isaac calls Peter and asks about Daniel’s demeanor the day he went missing and asks again about Evangeline. Peter insists that the person he saw was taller. Isaac wants to tell Peter about Evangeline’s connection with the boys. He asks about the conflict with the superintendent and whether it’s regarding Evangeline and paperwork, but Peter reassures him that Evangeline is catching up on her classes and doing well.

When Evangeline gets home from school, Lorrie is hiding on the front porch. She confronts Evangeline about why she was avoiding her and asks if it’s about Jonah. They go inside. Lorrie makes them tea and asks Evangeline to tell her about Jonah if she can, saying that it would be like getting to know a different part of him. When Lorrie leaves, Evangeline looks at Jonah’s bracelet and remembers the day after she and Jonah had sex. She meant to stay away, but when she thought of Jonah waiting for her, she had to go back to the park. She was wearing the bracelet when a buck leapt out of the woods in front of her. They stared at one another until the buck ran back into the woods. When she got back to the trailer, she realized that the bracelet had fallen off and went back to find it but failed. She decides to tell Lorrie about the bracelet and what it represents.

In the past timeline, Jonah thinks of Nells, of seeing her sleeping and fighting in a nightmare. He believes that his mother will protect her when he’s gone. He remembers a morning when Nells asked to go to a friend’s birthday party and their father got angry and refused. She called him an asshole, and he slapped her. Jonah was ready to jump in and punish his father, but Lorrie held the kitchen knife she was using to Roy’s side and told him that if he ever hit her or the kids again, she’d kill him. Roy slumped back and left the room, returning a few minutes later to apologize and tell Nells that she could go to the party. Roy never hit any of them again.

Isaac returns from Pennsylvania the night before Thanksgiving. Evangeline has the ingredients for a simple Thanksgiving dinner and suggests inviting Lorrie and Nells, but Isaac says that Thanksgiving is for family. The two of them have a peaceful and simple holiday. Isaac’s friend George (from the Quaker meetings) comes over to talk with Isaac about meeting the following week. Isaac refuses to return but asks George to organize a clearness committee to help him work out his emotions. George agrees and invites Isaac and Evangeline to join him on his boat.

Evangeline is enchanted with the boat and with sailing. The three of them spend the day on the water. Isaac thinks about his times with Daniel on that boat and realizes how much of Daniel’s inner life he didn’t see in the last couple years. When they get home, he almost insists on taking Rufus with him to bed, but he sees Evangeline’s easy affection with the dog and lets them go.

Evangeline enjoys eating with Isaac at the pizza parlor. He asks her questions about how to improve his teaching and genuinely listens to her responses. The simple pleasure of the meal highlights all that she’s missed in her life. When she goes to bed, she lies awake, and the shifting shadows on the ceiling bring back her night with Daniel.

After navigating the claustrophobic tunnel to the clearing, they emerged into a space that looked intentionally designed. Daniel told her that this place, with its rotting rattan loveseat slowly being devoured by vines, looked “like someone set it up as a room” (232). They ate the pizza, and afterward, Daniel kissed her and then roughly pushed her backward onto the settee. He pulled her hand to his genitals, and she pulled back, but he was stronger. She wondered if he realized that she accepted money for sex in the past. She decided that performing oral sex or using her hands on him was a reasonable trade for the pizza, but he pushed beyond both, ripping her shorts off and forcing himself on her. She told herself that he didn’t mean to rape her. She thought she could have fought him harder, hurt him, screamed, or made her limits clearer. Trying to regain some control, she told him to use a condom, but he didn’t have one and promised to pull out. He didn’t. After the rape, she lied to herself, trying to convince herself that it was a compliment.

She recognizes that her life has changed and that Isaac wants to genuinely know her. However, letting go of suspicion and distrust is hard after everything she’s experienced.

Jonah recalls the night of Daniel’s murder. Daniel asked Jonah to pick him up from football practice, and as soon as he entered the truck, he was intensely emotional. Daniel asked about Jonah’s new field-dressing kit for hunting and then insisted that they go hunting even though it wasn’t deer season. Daniel shot a buck and watched while Jonah cut it up with the razor-sharp field-dressing knives. Daniel said that he had sex with Evangeline, knowing that Jonah had feelings for her but telling Jonah to provoke him. Jonah leapt on Daniel, the knife slicing into his neck. Jonah kept stabbing and slicing, trying to end the pain in Daniel’s eyes. He doesn’t remember any emotions, just the actions. He remembers disbelief and how it would have been had he not been holding a knife. Jonah tries to tell himself that it was an accident but, in retrospect, knows that he wanted to kill Daniel.

As the winter begins, Evangeline has nightmares about a buck. Just before Christmas, the nightmares stop, and she feels at peace. She insists on inviting Lorrie and Nells for Christmas dinner, and Isaac agrees. When they decorate the Christmas tree, Isaac gags and has to stop. Evangeline finishes decorating without him, hoping that he’ll like it when it’s done. Though he seems to avoid the tree, he won’t let her take it down when she tries.

Evangeline told Lorrie almost everything about Jonah and Daniel but doesn’t understand why Lorrie appears to simply accept the situation, given Evangeline’s likely role in the boys’ death. Evangeline hopes that Lorrie will tell Isaac so that Evangeline won’t have to.

On Christmas day, Lorrie and Nells come over, wearing bright Christmas sweaters. Nells and Evangeline decorate while Lorrie and Isaac finish cooking. They eat together, talking about school, and Nells brings up robots and whether they’ll have feelings someday. Isaac asks if they could experience real suffering, and the conversation shifts to whether age matters in a romantic relationship. Isaac and Lorrie agree that between consenting adults, all that matters is love.

Peter and his family come over shortly before New Year’s Eve. The middle daughter, Mia, calls Rufus, and Evangeline follows, sitting on the floor with the younger girls. She opens the gift they prepared and takes the girls into her room to play. Isaac notices Peter looking at his wife with a new appreciation and feels closer to his friends than he has since before Daniel’s death.

That night, Isaac sits in his office, thinking of Peter’s affection toward his wife and recognizing his own shortfalls in his marriage to Katherine. Evangeline comes in to say goodnight, and he asks how she liked having the family over. She tells him that she doesn’t think Peter is who he presents himself to be. Isaac dismisses it as rumors at school.

At the first meeting of the clearness committee, George’s choice of Ralph Prouser, a man who criticized Isaac for speaking too often at meetings, frustrates Isaac. When the meeting begins, Ralph’s attention to the third member, Abigail, initially distracts Isaac. However, as he sits in silence, he remembers an experience sailing with Katherine, Jonah, and Daniel. They kayaked into an area with many sea lions. Jonah and Daniel were bickering, and Daniel jumped into the water from the kayak. A sea lion bit him, and Katherine jumped into the water, screaming, which scared the animals away. Isaac remembers being struck by Katherine’s power and beauty while feeling inadequate himself.

Jonah thinks about Quaker meetings with Isaac. When he attended meetings, he sometimes saw a ball of light surround a Friend just before they broke the silence. Once, he saw this light encompass the whole room. When he asked Isaac about it, Isaac told him that he might be a mystic—someone who can sense Divinity more strongly than others. At the last meeting Jonah attended, he saw that light come in and hit him; his body shook, his arms raised, and he felt words pressing against his lips but refused to release them. He never returned to the meetings.

After Christmas and New Year’s, Evangeline’s pregnancy becomes obvious. She experiences some bullying at school, especially from Daniel’s ex-girlfriend, Samantha. The rumor around school is that she’s pregnant with Jonah’s baby. Masie and Jillian keep their distance, but Natalia stays friends with Evangeline.

One afternoon, Evangeline gets home before Isaac and does the dishes. She hears thumping from upstairs and thinks it could be Rufus. She steels herself against fear and walks upstairs. She finds Rufus in Daniel’s old room, on his bed. She tries to touch him, but he growls until she turns on the light. She tries to coax him out of the room, but he stays put. She lies on the bed next to him and falls asleep, feeling a presence, maybe Daniel’s, as she drifts off. She’s woken by Rufus barking and rushing downstairs at Isaac’s arrival.

Isaac makes them sandwiches, and Evangeline goes to bed. Lying in the darkness, she tries to understand Daniel. She begins to see him as insecure, hurt by Samantha dumping him, and desperate for approval. She admits to herself that he raped her but resists victimhood. She realizes that she must forgive Daniel and herself so that her heart can heal to love her baby.

Isaac begins to acknowledge his anger at himself for not seeing the danger in Jonah. He tells the committee stories about Jonah’s moments of cruelty to Daniel. They ask if Daniel ever behaved similarly. Isaac tells them about a time when Jonah and Daniel hoisted Rufus into the tree house using a sling but couldn’t get him back down. When Daniel ran to get help from Isaac, Isaac saw the dog fall from the treehouse and was convinced that Jonah pushed the dog. Abigail asks him to describe Jonah in one word, and he’s incensed at what he sees as her judgment.

When he gets home, he finds Lorrie in the kitchen, washing a pot from the dinner she made with the girls. He greets her with coldness, angry to find her in his house. She defends herself, asking what she ever did to him besides being kind, so he confronts her about the night he saw her burning Jonah’s clothes. He says that she might have allowed his son to die to protect her son. She says that she knew that if the blood was Daniel’s, he was already dead. Both of them lose their strength, collapsing onto the kitchen chairs. She leaves, and Isaac bolts the back door.

Jonah hid Daniel’s body in some brambles and used the buck to cover Daniel’s blood on the forest floor. He drove home, and his mother initially believed him about the hunting. When he found her later in the kitchen, standing over his jacket, she was staring at her hands. When she heard him, she hissed at him that they needed to make sure Nells stayed asleep.

When Daniel was reported missing, some girls said that they saw him get into Jonah’s truck, but Jonah and Lorrie covered his tracks. They allowed each other to pretend that she believed him about the deer and that she was protecting him from getting in trouble over an out-of-season hunting fine. He wanted to believe she didn’t know, but he knew better.

In frustration from the sense of judgment he feels, Isaac cancels the clearness committee. George tries to convince him to reconsider that he could be close to a breakthrough, but Isaac refuses. Lorrie’s absence bothers Evangeline, and she tries to find excuses for Lorrie not coming over anymore. Isaac can’t tell her the real reason, but he won’t call the police because he doesn’t want Nells taken away. In addition, he feels Peter pulling away.

Things improve for Evangeline at school, both her grades and her relationships. Samantha apologizes. At her 28-week checkup, the doctor suggests that she may be further along in her pregnancy, which indicates that neither boy is the baby’s father. Evangeline goes home, trying to convince herself that the baby is just big. She wants to talk to Lorrie, but she hasn’t been over in weeks, and Evangeline doesn’t know why. If the baby isn’t Daniel or Jonah’s, Isaac will kick her out again, and she’ll have nowhere to go.