Gwendy's Button Box

Taking note of her weight gain, Gwendy remembers being called “Goodyear” and contemplates going to eat a chocolate from the button box. However, she realizes she doesn’t need the button box to be happy and smiles at the realization.

The next morning, Gwendy wakes up on the floor, holding the button box with her thumb on the black button. Shocked, she notices a chocolate from the box that she’s tempted to eat but decides to flush it down the toilet.

At the beginning of her senior year of high school, Gwendy has sex with Harry for the first time and receives her acceptance to Brown University. Her grades and running improve, and she refuses to weigh herself. She continues having nightmares about the box and sometimes finds herself fantasizing about Mr. Farris coming back to retrieve it.

One day while flying a kite with Harry, Gwendy notices Mr. Farris’s hat flying through the air. Harry doesn’t seem to see it.

The chapter includes an image of two people flying a kite. Behind them, a hat flies through the air.

Gwendy graduates from high school, excited by the prospect of summer with Harry. She knows she’ll need to decide what to do with the button box before she goes to college, but resolves to focus on her time with Harry until then.

One night, Gwendy and Harry are in her bedroom getting ready for a party. When she goes to her closet for a dress, she smells a foul smell. Frankie, who’s broken into her house and hidden in the closet, attacks her and Harry. Gwendy realizes As Frankie fights with Harry, he grabs the button box from its hiding place and uses it to bludgeon Harry to death. Gwendy runs to Harry, shocked at his death.

Trying to distract Frankie, Gwendy opens her bra up to him, inviting him to have sex with her. As Frankie prepares to rape her, Gwendy asks him if Mr. Farris sent him to retrieve the box. As Frankie looks confused, she lunges at him, grabbing the box. He stabs her in the foot and she tells him to “Rot in hell” as she pushes the red button down.

In 1984, Gwendy graduates from Brown. She plans to attend either Columbia University or the Iowa Writer’s Workshop for graduate school. Her parents ask if she’s dating anyone and she tells them she is not. She realizes the button box is her significant other.

After her graduation ceremony, Gwendy plans to spend the summer back home with her parents. When her parents go back to their hotel, she finishes packing. For most of her time in college, she’s kept the button box in a safe deposit box, but now she packs it in her trunk.

Before going to bed, she decides she wants some milk and a slice of coffee cake, so she goes into the kitchen to get it. Mr. Farris is waiting for her there with milk and a slice of cake. Gwendy’s confused about how he got in since she locked the door. He asks her to tell him what happened with Frankie. Although she doesn’t want to, she tells Mr. Farris what she’s never told anyone—that Frankie rotted in front of her and she used the box to wish Frankie’s body would disappear, and he did.

Mr. Farris tells Gwendy that she showed tremendous restraint in not using the buttons too often. He tells her that she did not cause Jonestown or Olive’s death. He reveals that Olive was being sexually assaulted by her stepfather, and Frankie was a serial rapist.

The two discuss what would have happened—and what wouldn’t have happened—if Gwendy had never been given the box. Mr. Farris reveals that Gwendy will be accepted into the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and that she will write a novel that will win an award. He thanks her for taking such good care of the box, noting that in her care of it was a source of good. He tells her she needs to give him the box, but that she will live a good and long life once he leaves.

Mr. Farris says he thinks the next custodian of the box will be a boy from California. He goes to get the box, leaving Gwendy alone.

This chapter includes an image of a skull sitting on top of clothes hangers.

Mr. Farris leaves without saying goodbye. Gwendy begins to feel lighter, realizing she has a story to tell. She sees that Mr. Farris left her another silver dollar.

The chapter ends with a picture of a silver dollar.