Summer of '69

Jessie writes to Tiger that he’s now an uncle and relays the drama of Blair’s labor and delivery. However, Jessie doesn’t tell Tiger about how she got drunk on the champagne from the celebration at the hospital (and had her first hangover) or reveal her broken heart over Pick. As Jessie returns from the hospital, Pick and Sabrina arrive at Little Fair and make their way upstairs. Jessie threatens to tell Kate, and Sabrina leaves. Jessie confronts Pick about kissing her just days earlier. He tells Jessie he didn’t know Sabrina liked him then and suggests that Jessie’s too young, but he wants to remain friends. She shuts her door in his face. She decides that neither Pick nor drinking are worth the consequences.

The next day, Jessie doesn’t want to go to tennis practice and has words with Exalta, who hasn’t been writing to Tiger. She’s tempted to steal again but resists and heads for the locker room. There, Helen tearfully admits that Garrison touched her inappropriately as well. She told her mother, but she just said that “all men are like that and [Helen] should just get used to it” (320). Jessie assures Helen that she’s not alone and then confides in Suze. Positive that the Club won’t punish Garrison, Suze devises a plan to make him miserable enough to quit. Jessie can’t wait to tell Helen.

Patty’s sister Sara drops by the boardinghouse with her friend Mary Jo to invite Patty and Kirby to attend Senator Kennedy’s party. Patty is going but won’t tell Luke. Since breaking up with Darren, Kirby has decided that she must regain her confidence and self-esteem, which her relationship with Scottie harmed. Knowing that it would be irresponsible to call in sick to work, she declines the invitation.

At 1:30am that morning, Luke drunkenly barges into the hotel, demanding to know where Patty is. He grabs Kirby’s wrist and starts to hurt her, thinking that this will make her reveal Patty’s whereabouts. Mr. Ames intercedes and threatens to call the police, but Kirby worries that this will defy the hotel’s insistence on discretion. Kirby calls a cab for Luke, who tries to make the cabbie go to the boardinghouse instead. Luke can’t remember his own address, so Kirby—worried that he’ll harm Patty—gets in the cab to direct him. Her trip takes an hour, and when she returns, Mr. Ames has given the Senator his room key. He returned, drunk, at 2:30am.

When she returns home after her shift, she finds Luke pacing outside her building. Panicked, Kirby asks the cabbie to take her to Darren’s home. Fearing for Darren’s safety, Dr. Frazier refuses to wake her son up to have an altercation with a white man. Kirby decides that she can handle Luke herself. When she gets to the house, Patty is arriving. She and Luke kiss, but then Luke pushes her and grabs her by the hair. Kirby tries to intercede, but Luke hits her too, just as Darren arrives. He punches Luke. Kirby tells Patty that she doesn’t have to put up with the abuse, but Patty takes Luke into the house, leaving Kirby and Darren, stunned, on the lawn. The police arrive, looking to question Patty about the Senator’s party. Mary Jo is dead, drowned in a car off the Dike Bridge.

Kate calls David after Blair’s delivery and invites him for the weekend, even suggesting that they rent a hotel room. David is cool to Kate but eager to see Jessie. The next day, there’s a knock on the door. It’s too early for David’s arrival, and Kate fears it’s a notice of Tiger’s death. Instead, Lorraine Crimmins stands there. She has come to retrieve her son. Kate tells Lorraine to go away, slams the door, and rushes to Little Fair to warn Bill—but he’s not there. Lorraine follows and confronts Kate, telling her to go ahead and slap her, just as she’s wanted to for 16 years. Kate tries to remain calm, but Lorraine goads her until Kate calls her a “whore” (344). Lorraine says that was lucky for Wilder. Kate tries to physically remove her from Little Fair, when Jessie and Pick both arrive. At first, Pick rejects Lorraine, but the two eventually embrace. Kate tries to get a message to Bill via the phone, forcing down the impulse to dampen her emotions with alcohol. Bill arrives, and the Crimmins go to discuss the situation in private.

As she and Jessie wait, Kate recalls how she found Wilder having sex with Lorraine in the buttery closet. Kate took the children and returned to Boston. Wilder lied to Exalta about why they left, saying that Tiger had a fever, so Exalta called to check on him. Kate was about to reveal the affair when Wilder arrived in repentance. Kate remembers, with regret, her relief that he still loved her. When the Crimmins come out of Little Fair, Pick waves goodbye before going off with Lorraine. Jessie confesses that she loves him, and Kate tells her they need to talk.