One Two Three

On a rainy summer day, Monday takes a cereal box, glue, scissors, a ruler, and all of her green colored pencils to the upstairs hall closet. Anticipating her mother’s imminent return from work, she quickly and precisely cuts out a postcard from the cardboard, decorates it with trees, addresses it to Mab, and slides it under their bedroom door. Mab tacks it up onto the wall, where it joins the 246 other such postcards that Monday has crafted.

This chapter is narrated by Mirabel. In it, she provides further details about her household. She notes that “[e]very day is a sleepover” for triplets (5). She recalls one week during fifth grade when Mab created hundreds of tiny stars out of gold foil and affixed them to their ceiling, much to the consternation of their mother, Nora. She describes her sister Monday’s loquacious nature, noting that Monday rarely stops talking and has questions about everything. About herself, Mirabel describes her “spastic” muscles, her “rigid” body, and the lack of control she has over anything but her right arm and hand. She writes about her idioglossia, a condition that renders her speech “so unformed or distorted it’s unintelligible” (6), although her sisters can understand her various “grunts and syllables” (6). She has recently gotten an app for her tablet, a “voice” that can interpret her thoughts quite effectively.

It is the first day of school. Mab notes her teachers’ habit of teaching subjects out of order, meaning that they might study the Civil Rights Movement before studying the Revolutionary War. She talks about how she and her fellow students are perceived by adults in their community and notes that the word “normal” is banned in her school. She and her immediate friend group are part of Track A, which in other schools might connote “gifted” or “advanced” placement courses, but at Bourne, such labels are not used.

Mab also introduces her friend Pooh, whose real name is Winnie, which is short for Winnifred. Pooh brings her a fancy pair of shoes as a present, and she recalls how the two formed a friendship after Mab volunteered to read to Pooh as part of a school service project. Pooh is of Korean heritage and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was young.

This chapter contains Monday’s perspective of the triplets’ school. Her favorite part about school is the building’s yellow color. Aside from that, she has many criticisms. Schoolwork tends to render enjoyable activities, such as reading, unenjoyable, and Monday can’t help but feel that the assigned texts are often facile and uninteresting. Monday is in Track B, which she describes as the group in which “the bodies of the students […] mostly work all the way, but [their] brains mostly do not” (15). Her sister Mab is in Track A, and Mirabel is in Track C, for she is a student who needs “extra help” with her body, but not necessarily her brain.

Although the school teaches subjects such as literature, math, and history, it contracts with an outside educational consulting group to teach science. That group struggles to provide an effective curriculum and then gives up, citing the students’ “special needs” and their positions “on the spectrum” as insurmountable difficulties (17). Never having heard these terms before, Monday asks Pastor Jeff, who, in addition to being a priest, is also the school’s doctor. He explains that such terminology has in the past been used to describe people such as the students at Bourne but that this terminology is not appropriate because such classifications are better suited to the categorization of things rather than people. He encourages Monday to see herself as an individual with many different capabilities, qualities, and strengths and urges her not to classify herself using such dated language.

Although Mirabel does have to attend school, she finds her studies unchallenging because she possesses a keen intellect and has already surpassed the high school curriculum. She supplements her education on her own by taking online courses and following her mother’s suggestions. Her mother, Nora, is a therapist and works with Pastor Jeff; the two are the sole health care providers in Bourne. However, the town does not lack medical supplies since many local companies are happy to donate what they can, if only because it provides them with a tax break. Bourne is an accessible community; because many of its residents use wheelchairs, restaurants and other public spaces are organized in a way that facilitates movement. Mirabel often accompanies her mother to work, and on this day, she even sits in on one of her mother’s therapy sessions.

Mab, as part of Track A, is forced to staff the school’s tutoring center: a task that she and many of her classmates dislike. She and her friend Petra find tutoring frustrating and wish that they could attend some kind of after-school activity that would exempt them from this requirement. On this particular day, their tutoring students are even more uninterested than usual in their studies, and the town is buzzing at the sight of moving vans, delivery vehicles, and construction equipment. Bourne is small, quaint, and quiet, and there have been very few changes in recent years. No one is sure why so many out-of-place vehicles are now driving around town.

Without the funds to keep the town library open, the facility was forced to close, so Monday took on the role of town librarian. The library’s books were moved to the Mitchell home, and Monday now stores them in every nook and cranny of their house. Because of the closure of other town buildings and services, Pastor Jeff also uses the church in a multi-purpose manner. Bourne’s house of worship is also a yoga studio, a printing center, and a copy shop for documents, keys, and videotapes. On this afternoon, Pastor Jeff stops by the Mitchell house to check out a book from Monday. He asks for a glass of water, which Monday finds odd, because most townspeople agree that the contaminated water supply is not safe to drink. Pastor Jeff then asks her to tell her mother that they are getting new neighbors. Although he does not have many details, he knows that someone is moving into the library. Monday is excited because she thinks that the library itself is reopening, and although Pastor Jeff tries to tell her otherwise, she waves him away.

Maribel is with her mother at Norma’s Bar. Nora works there in the afternoons, and Maribel usually accompanies her because she is the bar’s accountant. There are a few townspeople drinking on that afternoon, and many of them bear lasting marks and scars from their days at the plant, including Zach, who lost part of a leg due to a rare bone cancer that he contracted from the hazards of the job. Omar, the mayor, arrives and tells those gathered that a group of newcomers is moving to Bourne, although he is not sure who they are. Everyone is shocked that a still-contaminated town with such a troubled history would acquire new residents, but it seems to be true.

Mab and her sisters help one another to get ready, and then she goes to school. The history teacher, Mrs. Shriver, announces that there is a new student and introduces River Templeton. The class is stunned, for new students are unheard of in Bourne, and this boy looks like a movie star. He is bright and soon shocks the class again by raising his hand and adding to Mrs. Shriver’s lecture.

The girls are abuzz with interest in the new student. River Templeton is a name that they know, as is Nathan Templeton, his father, and Duke Templeton, his grandfather. Duke was the CEO of Belsum Chemical, the company that poisoned the town’s water supply years ago. Initially, when the water turned brown, Belsum claimed that it was still safe to drink, but when it turned bright green, the company admitted that it wasn’t. Nora has been working on a lawsuit against Duke Templeton and Belsum Chemical for many years.

Gossip swirls around the return of the Templeton family, and although Pastor Jeff’s yoga for seniors class is typically the best source of information about the town’s goings-on, Maribel is not able to learn anything concrete about River, Nathan, or Duke while she attends the class. Her mother is sure that the Templetons have returned to hide evidence because the investigation that she has been working on as part of a lawsuit she plans to file against Duke Templeton and Belsum Chemical finally seems to be making some headway.