53 pages • 1 hour read
Ask for Andrea
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Chapters 43-52Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 43 Summary: “Skye: Cascade, Idaho”
The women watch as James falls asleep and April lies next to him; Brecia points out that even if April is going to flee, it’s too risky for her to wake the girls up in the middle of the night. Early in the morning, before James awakens, April gets up and begins searching for the keys to the van. When James finds her, she claims that she was just making breakfast and suggests going into town to get more supplies, but James tells her that that is too risky.
Chapter 44 Summary: “Meghan: Cascade, Idaho”
After breakfast, April takes the girls outside to play. She tells them that they are secretly going to get some berries to surprise their father but that they must be very quiet to avoid ruining the surprise. April begins leading the girls away from the cabin; Meghan and Skye go with her, but Brecia decides to stay behind so that she can detect when James begins pursuing them.
Meghan and Skye begin to estimate how long it will take April and the girls to walk to the main road; they suspect that it will take hours but believe that “they’ll make it. They just have to keep going” (228). Brecia catches up to tell them that James is pursuing them in the van. Hearing the sound of the van, April begins leading her daughters deeper into the woods and farther away from the road; however, this increases the chances that they will get lost. April pauses and tells her daughters that a bear is nearby, so they need to run as quickly and quietly as possible.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Brecia: Cascade, Idaho”
Once April and the girls start running, they move much faster, and soon they are approaching the road. Since they are not far from a town, Skye is hopeful that April will be able to flag down a car once they reach the road. Suddenly, April hears the sounds of James approaching through the brush; she hides and tells the girls to be silent. Brecia follows the sounds; James has stopped the van on the side of the road and begun walking through the woods, approaching where April is hiding.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Skye: Cascade, Idaho”
Chapter 47 Summary: “Meghan, Cascade, Idaho.”
Chapter 48 Summary: “Brecia: Cascade, Idaho”
Chapter 49 Summary: “Skye: Cascade, Idaho”
April sees James before he sees her; she snatches the girls and darts around a corner and into the washroom. James is clearly waiting for them to arrive, knowing that this would be the closest place for them to call for help. While the restaurant is a public place, Skye can envision that no one will intervene if James warmly greets his family and forces them out, even if April causes a scene: “[T]he burden of proof was high to get involved with a stranger’s business” (249).
Chapter 50 Summary: “Meghan: Cascade, Idaho”
April locks herself and her daughters into the bathroom; the girls are confused and upset. There is no way out other than back through the restaurant. After a few minutes, a woman knocks on the door. April and the three women catch sight of a sign on the bathroom wall. It instructs women who feel like they’re in danger and need help to “ask for Andrea” at the bar. April opens the door a tiny crack and tells the woman standing there to go to the bar and “tell the bartender that Andrea is needed in the bathroom” (253). Confused, the woman agrees.
Moments later, a young waitress comes to the door; April tells her what is going on. The waitress immediately goes to call the police. The police arrive and arrest James on charges of Meghan’s murder while April and her daughters remain safely locked in the bathroom.
Chapter 51 Summary: “Brecia: Cascade, Idaho”
Once James has been taken away, the local police take a statement from April. April seems to have been unaware of her husband’s violence until it was much too late. Domanska arrives, and April and the girls go to stay at a local motel. Meghan is happy to be reunited with Domanska and eager to cross over to the other realm, as is Brecia; Skye is much more hesitant. Also, while James is now linked to Meghan’s and Brecia’s murders because he met them through the app, the Utah police are unwilling to connect him to Skye’s murder. Brecia remembers that James had a coffee cup from the café where Skye worked in his desk and realizes that the police might now find it.
Chapter 52 Summary: “Skye: Kuna, Idaho”
Officer Domanska sees footage of James holding the coffee cup with the smiley face on the café security tape and later finds the cup itself in James’s home. Skye’s murder is added to his charges. The three women slip into the jail cell where James is being held and torment him with nightmares; his screams aggravate his cellmate, who begins beating James. The three women leave him behind.
Brecia, Skye, and Meghan spend some time at Skye’s family home, gradually filtering through Skye’s memories. Finally, they happen upon a memory of a great aunt whom Skye met a long time ago; the elderly woman has passed away and warmly welcomes Skye into the spirit world. Now, all three women are free to pass into the other realm and be reunited with their families from across generations.
Chapters 43-52 Analysis
In the final stretch of the novel, April flees with her children on foot and into the woods. The wilderness is a place of danger but also a refuge: They could get lost, encounter wild animals, or freeze to death, but they are still better off there than with James. The escape into the woods reflects how domestic settings can actually become unsafe due to the threat of masculine violence. The blurry line between what is safe and what is dangerous is exacerbated when April tells her daughters that they have to run quickly and silently because they are being pursued by a bear. James is symbolized as a vicious wild animal, and yet the novel has repeatedly pointed out that he is actually worse than an animal; certainly, his plan to purposefully kill his own offspring is worse than anything an animal would do without extreme duress. April’s warnings of a wild animal reflect a trope common in many fairytales, folk stories, and oral teachings, in which monsters or beasts are used to caution children; it also has particular nuance because as girls, April’s daughters face specific threats of gendered violence in their future. As they run through the woods, they are symbolically inducted into a world where girls and women are rarely safe and must be constantly on guard.
Even though it initially seems that April and her daughters arrive safely at the roadside bar, they face additional threats. They remain at risk, which symbolizes how violence (and especially gendered violence and domestic abuse) can hide in plain sight. Skye realizes that James will be able to “apologi[ze] for April’s seemingly insane behavior” and use his own charm and charisma to assuage any concerns that might be raised (248). The possibility that James will abduct April and the children from a crowded bar reflects the theme of The Ability to Hide One’s True Nature as well as internalized social misogyny: James will be able to dismiss April as “crazy” and the authorities “would give him the benefit of the doubt” (248).
April experiences significant character development once she realizes that the lives of her children are in danger; although she compares James to a bear, she also functions like an animal, driven to protect her offspring no matter what. Motherhood and maternal bonds are shown as a source of strength and fortitude, even though April has been almost entirely passive up to this point, leading Meghan to reflect on “this strength, this superhuman power” (243). Even though none of the protagonists are mothers, they react strongly to the instinct to protect the two little girls; along with April, they become a community working together toward a shared goal, exemplifying the theme of The Power of Community Among Women.
Furthermore, female community saves April and her children. April retreats to the bathroom (a gendered and enclosed space) and luckily catches sight of an “Ask for Andrea” sign. This sign allows her to signal that she needs help. Significantly, the climax of the conflict and James’s downfall occur not through violent or forceful conflict or any traditional heroic gestures: Women pass information to one another and rely on one another, and these tacit networks of care enable them to keep each other safe. The ghosts who invisibly linger nearby further symbolize a network of care since they have been silently helping April all along.
In light of the violent events of the plot, the conclusion is at best bittersweet. April and her children are safe, and James is punished: He will either die as a result of the attack from his cellmate or be convicted and spend the rest of his life in prison. However, none of this can bring the three protagonists back to life. In the spirit world, Skye is finally able to find a distant family member she can connect with, and this transition is depicted positively, as a case where she steps into “the feeling of being loved from so many different places in time” (267). The theme of the power of community among women finds its fullest expression in each of the protagonists being welcomed by a female relative (Meghan meets her grandmother, Brecia goes to her aunt, and Skye reunites with a great aunt) and encountering some form of peace and completion despite the tragedies they endured.
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