Family of Liars

Carrie goes to Goose Cottage and sees that the boys have already taken over, taking off their shirts and playing ping pong on the lawn. She sees Pfeff inside on the phone, apologizing to someone and explaining his whereabouts for the summer and that he may be staying “forever” (72) on the island. George tells Carrie that Pfeff is on the phone with his mother.

Pfeff hangs up the phone, and Carrie, who cannot stop staring at the shirtless boys, suggests they all go swimming. They go to the beach, and Carrie watches the boys jump in while she stays on the shore. Major calls out to her to join them, and she strips to her swimsuit, not worrying about getting in the water because of the codeine pill she took earlier. Carrie can feel herself wanting to touch someone and thinks about the potential the boys represent for the rest of her summer.

Before dinner that night and Tipper’s annual Lemon Hunt, Carrie worries over what to wear. She spies the black pearls on her dresser and knows that Tipper will be upset she did not return them sooner, so she goes to her mother’s room to place them back in her jewelry drawer.

Her parents’ room is empty, and as she looks at her father’s side of the bed, she sees a bottle of Halcion sleeping pills. She takes a tiny handful out of the bottle and puts them in her pocket before going to the jewelry drawer. Inside the drawer, she looks for the photograph hidden in the lining and pulls it out. In the photograph is a younger version of her mother standing outside one of the buildings at her college. She looks at a man whose body is visible but whose face is scratched out completely. Perplexed at the image before her, Carrie quickly tucks it back into the drawer.

That evening is Tipper’s annual Lemon Hunt, during which everyone wears yellow or white and hunts for lemons and a single lime hidden around Beechwood Island. Whoever wins the most lemons gets a prize, as well as the person who finds the lime. Carrie sits with Penny and Erin, and Penny notes that Pfeff is “pretty fine” (79). The boys arrive at dinner late, and everyone sits together on the lawn instead of at the table. While the young people discuss movies, Carrie watches Pfeff, who often exclaims how delicious everything is. George tells Pfeff to enjoy it now because Amherst, where they will both attend college, is “all cafeteria food” (82).

Tipper asks Carrie to stand and explain the rules of the Lemon Hunt to everyone, as she has done for the past few years. Everyone collects their baskets and begins the hunt. The boys begin searching together, and Carrie joins Yardley. They spot Tomkin, who insists that he can hunt lemons on his own now that he is 11. Yardley teases him but tosses him the single lime, which she found right away. Carrie is impressed that Yardley found it so quickly, but Yardley merely says: “No one in this family can see what’s right in front of them” (85).

Carrie and Yardley move on, and Carrie tells her about the photograph she found in her mother’s room. Yardley is curious about the photo but warns Carrie not to dig any further. Yardley tells Carrie that since her parents divorced, she has begun to ignore everything that has to do with the adults’ world because often, what you find when digging will turn ugly fast. The cousins make their way to Pevensie and separate to search on the opposite sides of the house. When Carrie rounds the corner, she sees Yardley kissing George up against the side of the house. Yardley notices Carrie and tells her to go search for lemons on her own and then asks George if he wants to see her room.

Carrie takes off alone toward the Big Beach and meets Pfeff. They stand together against the railing that looks out over the water. When Pfeff asks if he should climb it, Carrie tells him that all the “cool kids” are into water safety. Pfeff laughs, tells Carrie she is clever, and then leans down and kisses her. Pfeff tells Carrie it would have “been a waste” (81) not to kiss her because of the romantic location where they stand. Carrie pulls him in for another kiss, and Pfeff kisses her with more urgency before pulling away to tell her that he should go because he wants to win the Lemon Hunt. He calls her beautiful and then disappears.

For the rest of the hunt, Carrie sits by herself on the family’s dock, wondering about the implications of Pfeff’s kiss and if it means that he likes her. She returns to the party only when she hears the concluding bell. Pfeff wins the most lemons prize, having found 20 in all. He wins a $100 gift card to the bookshop in Edgartown. Everyone settles in to enjoy dessert. Carrie sits near the blanket where the boys are and hears Pfeff explaining that he forgot to pack socks and underwear. Carrie offers to bring Pfeff to Edgartown the next morning so that he can buy supplies. They decide to meet on the dock at eleven o’clock the next day.

Everyone begins to head off to bed, but Carrie spots her father standing alone on the dock with the family dogs. She walks down to him, and he shows her a loose board that needs repair on the dock, rusty nails sticking out of it. They make small talk, and then Carrie is about to ask him about the photograph in her mother’s drawer but decides against it, not wanting to put her father in an awkward position in case he does not know about it.

Before going to bed, Carrie takes one of her father’s Halcion pills, mainly so she can sleep after the night’s many events. Carrie breaks in from the present to explain that at this point in her life, she did not yet know that she would have to go to a rehabilitation center twice for her addiction to codeine and sleeping pills.

Carrie tells another fairy tale: “The Stolen Pennies.” She details the story of a man who goes to visit a friend and his family. As they all sit down to a meal, the front door opens, and a 10-year-old girl enters the room. The guest asks who the girl is, but everyone else at the table says they do not see anyone.

The next day while everyone is eating together again, the same girl enters the home. The guest follows the little girl and finds her on her knees, scratching at the floorboards. He notices that the young girl has a mole on her chin. Worried that she might hurt herself, the guest describes what he sees to the family. They reveal that they had a child who died four years ago and who also had a mole on her chin.

The family pulls up the floorboards and finds two pennies. The mother explains that she had given the money to her daughter to give to a beggar on the street, but instead, the girl had kept the money for herself. The mother says she will donate the money to someone in need so that her daughter’s soul can finally rest. The ghost girl disappears.

Carrie explains that she would like to think of herself as the guest in the story because she can see Rosemary’s ghost and that it is her responsibility to help Rosemary’s ghost find rest. She admits, however, if she is being honest, that she is not the guest but the ghost girl digging for pennies.

Carrie waits for Pfeff at eleven the next morning, but he does not arrive. Carrie waits to see if he arrives but decides to leave without him, wishing she were “the kind of girl a guy would remember to meet” (101). She tells herself she should not care as she begins motoring out of the harbor. As she passes Tiny Beach, she hears Pfeff calling her name and explaining that he just woke up.

Pfeff swims to the boat in his shoes and clothes. He kisses Carrie on the cheek and thanks her for not driving away. As they dock the boat in Edgartown, Pfeff apologizes. Carrie and Pfeff go to a beach shop. They eat lunch by the harbor, and Pfeff makes more purchases.

As they head toward the register in the bookstore, Pfeff recognizes a girl, Sybelle, with whom he had attended a wilderness camp the summer before. Sybelle asks Pfeff if he would like to go get ice cream and catch up, and Pfeff tells Carrie that he will meet her at the dock and that he “won’t be long” (107). Carrie runs errands and tells herself, “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter” (108) as she tries not to think about Pfeff. She finally returns to the boat and weighs whether she should be angry with Pfeff. She takes codeine, and Pfeff only returns as the sun sets.

He offers a lengthy excuse for his absence, and Carrie says, “Bite me, Pfefferman” (110). Both Carrie and Pfeff are surprised by her anger. Pfeff explains that he and Sybelle had a romantic fling last summer that ended badly, so he was trying to make it up to her so that she would no longer be mad at him. Carrie tells him that he does not care about anyone but himself. Pfeff tries to apologize, but Carrie tells him not to speak to her.

By the time Carrie returns to Clairmont House, dinner is over. Carrie sits with Penny and Erin at the kitchen table with a chicken sandwich and tells them about the past 24 hours. Penny cannot believe that Carrie kissed Pfeff and that she did not tell her sooner, and Erin agrees that Pfeff is “a weenie” (112) for his behavior. Erin asks whether Carrie thinks that Pfeff may have been sleeping with Sybelle that afternoon, which is why he was late. Carrie admits that the thought had not occurred to her or the fact that he would have had sex with Sybelle in the middle of the day. Penny agrees with Erin and tells Carrie that Yardley says that Pfeff “gets around [...] he’s like, always got someone” (112). Erin teases Penny by saying she would “get around” Pfeff and asks Carrie if she thinks Major might like her. Penny says that Major told her he is gay and that his parents are fine with it because they are “hippies or something” (113). Erin and Penny continue to tease one another before going to bed.

Rosemary is waiting for Carrie in her room when she arrives wearing a cheetah suit costume. She asks Carrie if she wants to watch Saturday Night Live, but Carrie says people are still downstairs. Rosemary agrees that they cannot go downstairs and that she is only here to spend time with Carrie. Rosemary suggests they play a game instead, but Carrie tells her that she is too tired and says she will snuggle with Rosemary instead. Carrie takes a sleeping pill and gets into bed with Rosemary.

The longer the boys stay on the island, the more pressure Carrie feels from her parents to figure out her plans for after high school. She thinks about what she would rather do: “Go to nightclubs and wander through museums and have an ugly walk-up apartment with some friends” (118). She feels she cannot step off the path her parents have made for her, even though she wants to.

Carrie continues to spend time at Goose Cottage with Yardley and the boys, but Pfeff and Carrie ignore each other. One night they all go swimming and play a word game in the water. They take turns trying to make Carrie laugh, and finally, Pfeff succeeds. Pfeff swims close to her and tells her that she has to admit it: He made her laugh.

Back in the house, Carrie walks by Penny’s room and sees the door open; Penny and Erin are passed out with an empty whiskey bottle between them. As Carrie helps Penny to bed, Penny tells her that she looked at Tipper’s secret photograph and thinks the man in the picture is their father. Penny says that Tipper must scratch out more of his face whenever she is upset with him. Carrie tells Penny she is “unbalanced right now.” Penny retorts: “Me? [...] I’m not the one high on pills all the time” (123), which stops Carrie in her tracks, not realizing that anyone knew about her pill addiction.

The next day, Major invites Carrie to join him and Pfeff on an early morning boat ride, a tradition the two have begun that Yardley and George sometimes join in on. Pfeff tells Carrie that she should come the next morning and that it would be fun to have her along. Carrie realizes that she does not like Pfeff but that she does want to kiss him again because his attention makes her more attractive: “dispelling the taint of my malformed, infected jaw” (125). She agrees to go.

Carrie arrives at Goose Cottage at 6:15 the next morning, but no one else is awake. Pfeff wanders in after a while and thanks her for making coffee while Carrie feels simultaneously repelled by him and wishes he would come over to kiss her.

Pfeff, Major, Carrie, and Penny go out on the early morning boat ride; Penny arrives with a strawberry sheet cake she stole from the kitchen. Pfeff drives the boat out and then cuts the motor as they sit silently. Penny is bored after a few minutes, and Major tells her that the experience is better when high. Penny calls Major and Pfeff delinquents and then jumps into the water, and Major joins her.

Pfeff tells Carrie how he grew up with the expectation that he would go to Amherst and become a lawyer, like his father and grandfather. He tells her that he is not a good student, does not want that life for himself, and would rather spend his time traveling the world working. Penny and Major climb back into the boat, and Penny brings out the sheet cake she stole from the kitchen. Carrie bristles when Pfeff says to Penny: “I think I love you. Quite a lot, actually” (130). Carrie wonders if Pfeff is trying to make her jealous and ignores him for the rest of the boat ride.

Carrie thinks about the story Pfeff confiding in her and realizes that she wants the same things in life that Pfeff wants. When they arrive back at the harbor, Carrie stays behind to clean up, and Pfeff waits for her. He asks her, “You can tell I’m a fake, right?” (131) and says that Carrie can see through him. He tells her that he wanted someone else to know the truth about him and his real desires and that he did not get into Amherst without his father donating a large sum of money. He tells Carrie that she is the keeper of his secret.

Before that evening’s cocktail hour, Carrie approaches her mother and asks who the man in the photograph is. Tipper asks if Carrie asked Harris about the photograph, and Carrie tells her that she has not and also expresses frustration that in their family, they “never talk about any of it. We just pretend it’s not there” (134). Carrie also accuses her mother of sending Rosemary’s ghost away to forget about her. Tipper admits that she does not like to talk about difficult things and believes it is better “to look forward” (136). Carrie asks about the photograph again, and Tipper sighs but pulls out the photograph from the drawer.

Before Tipper begins, she warns Carrie not to tell anyone, including her sisters, about the photograph, although she admits that her father already knows. Tipper then reveals that Harris is not Carrie’s biological father and that the photograph is of a man named Buddy Kopelnick—Tipper’s ex-boyfriend and Carrie’s biological father.

Tipper tells Carrie that she and Harris were already married when Tipper got pregnant with Buddy’s child, but she and Harris decided to remain married and made Harris Carrie’s legal father. She explains that she loved Buddy but could not be with him because he was Jewish, and her family disapproved. She tells Carrie that she grew to love Harris, too, and that the black pearls were a gift from Harris on their second wedding anniversary, a way to acknowledge all they had been through and overcome. Taking in this information, Carrie asks what happened to Buddy, and Tipper tells her that he became sick and died. Carrie realizes with anxiety that this means her position in her family has always been precarious and that her father “does not have to love me” (140) because she is not truly a Sinclair.

That evening after dinner, everyone plays Who Am I, a game where everyone is assigned a famous person or character, but they do not know who, and they have to interact with other partygoers to give them hints about who they are. When Carrie arrives on the porch, Harris hands her an Old Fashioned, saying that the older kids can drink that night. Carrie downs the drink quickly, unable to put aside the knowledge that Harris is not her father. Carrie desperately wants to tell Yardley about her true parentage but grabs another drink instead.

Carrie drinks steadily throughout the game, her thoughts continuing to swirl. Penny struggles to guess her character as she interacts with the other partygoers, wondering why Yardley told her she looked good in white. Pfeff asks Carrie how she feels about her sister and points out that she is drunk. Carrie runs into Penny, who asks if she is drunk, and then Carrie notices that Penny is wearing the black pearls.

Carrie points out that the pearls belong to Tipper, and Penny shrugs, saying that Tipper gave her a turn to wear them because she asked. She also makes an off-hand remark during the game, saying that Carrie’s father is not her father. Carrie balks at this, forgetting the game, and runs outside, only then thinking to take off her card and seeing that her character is Luke Skywalker, who also learns that his father is not his father.

Carrie swings around in the tire swing, thinking about how Tipper gave Penny the pearls that “tell the story of me” (150) and realizes that the jaw surgery Harris pushed so hard for must have been in part to “fix me so that I looked like him” (150), making her think she had no choice in the matter.

After a while, Pfeff joins Carrie outside, and Carrie tells him to leave her alone after he asks if she is okay. She asks him why he and his friends are still on the island, and Pfeff tells her that the answer is right in front of her. He grabs the swing, pulls her in, and begins kissing her. He pleads with her to come to his room, and she goes.

Rosemary is in Carrie’s room later that night when she returns from Pfeff’s room. She tells Carrie that she is worried that Carrie will do something terrible. Thinking that Rosemary means sex, Carrie tells her that sex is not terrible, although it may seem weird to Rosemary because she is younger.

Rosemary asks if they can make bracelets. Carrie tells Rosemary that she cannot be a kid with her forever and asks how she can help Rosemary feel better and resolve her unfinished business on earth. Rosemary insists she just wants to make bracelets, and Carrie tells her they can cuddle together instead while Carrie falls asleep.

Carrie and Pfeff begin to sneak off together. Carrie basks in the warm glow of Pfeff’s attention, feeling wanted and accepted. Carrie wants to talk to Penny about her burgeoning relationship with Pfeff but finds that Penny is always with Erin. She talks to Bess and Yardley, who are not surprised to find Pfeff and Carrie are together.

Late the next night, Carrie finishes reading a story to Rosemary in bed when she hears a soft knock on her door. She opens it to find Pfeff, who pleads with her to let him in. Carrie senses that Rosemary is still in the room but has disappeared, and she tells Pfeff that it is far too risky for her to let him in. Carrie has to deny Pfeff’s pleading multiple times until he listens to her and leaves. 

Rosemary does not appear again for a few more nights after the evening of Pfeff’s visit. Trying to make it up to her, she tells Rosemary another fairy tale, which she retells in the hopes that “it may help you understand this difficult thing I am trying to say, the part of my life I cannot yet put into my own words” (162).

Carrie retells the story “Mr. Fox,” about a woman named Lady Mary who longs to find love. She soon meets Mr. Fox, who charms her even though he sometimes “seemed careless” (162). Lady Mary agrees to his marriage proposal, but as weeks go by, Mr. Fox does not invite Lady Mary or her brothers to his castle.

One day Mr. Fox is out of town, and Lady Mary searches for his castle. Upon finding it, she enters the impressive castle and goes to the top floor, where she finds a long hallway with a steel door at the end. Inside is a long corridor filled with women’s bones and dead bodies. She realizes Mr. Fox only views women as trophies, something to pursue and discard.

Lady Mary tries to escape the castle, but as she gets ready to flee, Mr. Fox returns home, carrying the body of yet another young woman. Lady Mary hides and watches as Mr. Fox chops off the woman’s hand when he cannot remove her diamond ring. Lady Mary grabs the hand and runs home when Mr. Fox drags the woman upstairs.

The next morning before their wedding ceremony, Lady Mary tells the assembled breakfast guests that she had a horrible nightmare the night before. She describes the horrible scene at Mr. Fox’s castle, and he assures her that it was only a dream. She then holds up the severed hand, revealing Mr. Fox’s true intentions, and her brothers swiftly kill Mr. Fox, cutting him to pieces.

Carrie explains that this story is also hers, just as “Cinderella” and “The Stolen Pennies” were. She compares herself to Lady Mary, wanting love and acceptance, and Pfeff to Mr. Fox. Carrie admits that, as in the other stories, she may also be Mr. Fox.