Good Night, Irene

Irene lives on the Woodward farm. Everything in the house reminds her of the war because she only decorates it with old pictures and memorabilia. She thinks about the soldier on the train before she left for war and realizes that he was right about the nature of survival. Survival means that she has lived a “lifetime [in the knowledge that] . . . [she] killed [her] best friend” (373). Irene is the last Woodward and has inherited all the Woodward property. Irene remembers when she first returned to America and lived in this house with her grandmother and aunt, both of whom cared for her during her recovery. Her mother came to visit occasionally, but she never forgave Irene for the way she left during the war. After the war, Irene had trouble returning to her own way of life, and her mother mocked her for being overly dramatic, failing to empathize with or understand her daughter because she herself had not experienced the war.

Irene’s old footlocker now sits in her living room. She has never opened it even though she knows that it contains her journals and old photographs. The thought of opening the footlocker scares her, especially the thought of looking at the old pictures. She still talks to Hans in her head every day, as if he is in the house with her. As she sits down, Irene looks at a picture of Jack Dashiell. Jack was her boyfriend when they were younger, and after the war, he returned from the South Pacific to find her again. After Irene’s grandmother and aunt died, they married. Jack and Irene understood each other, and even though Irene never got over Hans, Jack was a good companion for 14 years before his heart gave out. After Jack died, she stayed inside with her memories.

Dorothy dreads seeing Irene’s grave because she knows that it will make her friend’s death feel final. In her daydreams, she wants to believe that Hans survived, found Irene, and made a life with her on a ranch. However, Dorothy knows that Irene is buried on her family’s land. She recalls escaping to Denmark and raising Andrea on her own. When Andrea was older, they opened a bakery in Copenhagen called the Rapid City American Bakery. The bakery was popular with people who survived the war, and Dorothy and Andrea recreated a sense of camaraderie in their store. Andrea’s daughter, Irene, grew up in the shop, but when Irene was a baby, they started calling her “Dolly,” and the nickname stuck.

Dorothy has a flashback to the night of the crash, when Irene died. Dorothy remembers how she protected the baby as she flew out of the side of the truck while it exploded behind her. She knows she will never forget the look on Irene’s face before the explosion. Back in the present moment, Andrea and Dolly wake Dorothy up from her nightmare, and she decides to tell them the details about that night. She tells them how Irene was angry at her for leaving but agreed to drive the truck anyway. Dorothy admits that she should have been driving the truck because she was always the driver. When Dorothy woke up after the accident, refugee women in the mountains found her and helped her and Andrea. Dorothy saw the burning truck and knew that Irene could not have survived. After that, she escaped to Denmark and made a new life in Copenhagen, but she never forgot the accident or forgave herself for how she sacrificed her best friend so that she could escape.

In the afternoon, Irene falls asleep in her rocking chair and wakes up to voices outside and the sound of a car door slamming. She looks outside to see a motorhome in her driveway and feels irritated because she suspects they are solicitors. She sees a young girl walk up to the front door.

Dorothy stares up at the Woodward house, thinking of all the stories that Irene told her about this place. Although she does not know who lives in the house now, she hopes they will let her pay her respects to Irene’s grave. Dolly walks up to the house to knock on the door. Irene opens the door, and the young girl asks her if this is the old Woodward home. Irene tells her that she does not want to buy anything and tries to close the door on her. Dolly tells her that her grandmother wanted to pay her respects to someone who used to live in this area. Irene tells her to try the library, and the girl stops the door again, staring behind Irene. Dolly points at a picture of Dorothy on the wall and asks why Irene has a picture of her grandmother. Irene tells her she is mistaken but Dolly tells her that her grandmother’s name is Dorothy Dunford. Irene does not believe it, but Dolly points behind her at the older woman coming up to the front porch. Dolly tells Irene that her first name is Irene and that her grandmother calls her the Third Girl in the Truck. Irene sees Dorothy and starts to shake, so she closes the door. Dorothy walks up to the door and coaxes Irene to come out. She tells Andrea and Dolly to wait for her in the truck because she wants privacy with Irene.

Irene sits in her rocking chair and shakes. She has flashbacks to the night of the crash and realizes with horror that she left her friend behind. She takes a deep breath and resolves never to leave Dorothy again. She asks Hans for courage and then goes and opens the door. Irene takes Dorothy’s face in her hands, and they stare at each other. Each woman is shocked by the knowledge that the other is alive. They start to smile, and Dorothy tells Irene that her daughter is the baby they saved together. Irene helps Dorothy inside and tells her that she still has their berets in her footlocker. This makes Dorothy laugh, and Irene realizes as she guides Dorothy and her family inside that her days of loneliness are behind her.