Three Wishes

The story shifts to Cat’s perspective right after she discovers Dan’s midnight calls to Angela. When Cat demands the truth, Dan says he’d been having doubts about their marriage for an entire year. While he still loves Cat, he is no longer in love with her. Now furious, Cat throws him out. This is the night when she goes on her unfortunate drinking binge, has a car accident, and gets arrested. Even though she’s now lost her license, Cat takes a loaner from the auto repair shop and continues to drive anyway. A week later, she returns to work, explaining that her absence was simply a bad case of the flu. A co-worker brings his new baby to work, which gives Cat a twinge about her own bleak prospects of ever becoming a parent.

In January, Lyn and Gemma remind Cat that the three had booked a health and beauty weekend together. Even though Cat doesn’t want to go, the others drag her along. Once at the resort, Cat begins to feel a glimmer of life returning. As the siblings sit together in a hot tub, Cat wishes she could return to the womb: “Because those other two versions of you, who had been there forever, were right there beside you, not going anywhere” (248).

Now that Cat is living alone, she finds herself suffering from serious insomnia. Her thoughts keep churning about Dan and the fact that they shared decades of experience in common. Now, their lives had gone in separate directions. Cat thinks, “And that lack of knowledge about his life would just keep accumulating and expanding, pushing them further apart, a cold empty space between them” (251). Still consumed by her anger, Cat drives to Angela’s house just to see if Dan spent the night there. When she sees both their cars parked at the curb, a fit of rage takes hold. As Cat slashes their tires, Dan and Angela rush out to confront her. Cat feels disgusted by her own uncontrolled rage and leaves.

Later, Gemma visits Cat at her office and says the couple might take out a restraining order against her. Given Cat’s impending court date for the car accident, this might not look good. Gemma also announces that she’s broken up with Charlie. After Gemma leaves, Cat learns that she must attend a company function that night with the CEO, Graham Hollingdale. Cat wakes up the next morning to find Graham in bed with her. She’s alarmed that they had sex, but he reassures her that they only made out. Because Graham and his wife are polyamorous, he asks if Cat will become one of his lovers; Cat asks him to leave.

The chapter ends with an observer’s story. A man is out at a nightclub with his mates when he sees three attractive women on the dance floor. He walks up, intending to ask one of them to dance, but they whirl off together in another direction. His mates are amused. The man says, “No way could you break into that little circle. All they could see was one another” (259).

Lyn has begun a long-distance correspondence with her American ex-boyfriend, Hank. He is the only person she’s told about her panic attacks. These have recurred every time she finds herself in a parking garage. Hank publishes self-help books, so he may have resources that Lyn needs. Also, confiding in Hank is easier than dealing with her family. Lyn thinks, “Hank didn’t know that Lyn had no right to feel anxious when everyone knew her life was so wonderful, while Cat’s was falling to pieces and Gemma couldn’t seem to make one” (262).

While Lyn is battling her inner demons, the entire family pulls together for Cat’s day in court. Her attorney pleads special circumstances because of Cat’s divorce and miscarriage. She’s given a six-month license suspension and a $1,000 fine. Cat is determined to continue driving without a license anyway. Once the court case is over, Lyn and Michael prepare for Maddie’s second birthday. The family is staging a picnic at a nearby beach. Even Cat decides to show up for the event, though she’s kept out of touch for weeks on end. During the party, Lyn notices a red sore on her arm and begins to feel feverish. She announces that she might have chickenpox. Michael blurts out that this could be dangerous if Lyn is pregnant. Cat is resentful that Lyn and Michael are trying to conceive another baby. 

As Lyn recovers from chickenpox, Kara is unusually kind to her. Lyn finds out that Kara and her friends have been emailing Cat for advice. At first, Lyn is offended until Kara explains that these aren’t things the girls would tell their parents, and now Kara thinks of Lyn as her mother. Michael tends Lyn faithfully through her illness. She finally admits to him that she fears her panic attacks are a sign of mental illness. Michael begins to search the internet for everything he can find about parking garage phobias to try to help his wife.

During her recovery, Lyn learns from Maxine that Cat and Gemma have concocted a mad scheme. Gemma is now four months pregnant, and Cat wants to adopt the baby. Charlie is the father, but nobody has told him. The two sisters plan to live together in Cat’s house. Maxine observes that this is typical of them. As children, Gemma would always try to appease Cat by giving her whatever she wanted. Maxine says that she told Gemma, “A baby is not a toy! It’s not something you just hand over to your sister because she hasn’t got one!” (282).

The chapter concludes with an observer’s story. A woman in a record store sees another woman shopping with her three grown daughters. The shop is playing music from the 60s, and the strait-laced mother demonstrates the proper way to do the Twist. The girls join in, and they all dance together: “It was rather lovely. Then the song stopped and they stopped and that was it” (283).

The narrative shifts to Gemma as she recalls her break-up with Charlie. It happened shortly after Cat slashed Angela’s tires. Charlie complains about Cat’s impulsive behavior and that she needs to get over the divorce. When Gemma defends Cat’s actions, she notices a look of disapproval on Charlie’s face: “Charlie compressed his lips and puffed out his cheeks, drawing his eyebrows together. And there it was. That feeling. The icy breeze whistling through her bones” (285).

Gemma abruptly tells Charlie that they’re through. After he leaves, Gemma thinks sadly that he didn’t make the six-month mark. Around the same time, she realizes she is pregnant because she forgot to take her birth control pill once when he slept over. After the doctor confirms her pregnancy, Gemma is in a panic. She loves other people’s children but doesn’t want the responsibility of one of her own. She also doesn’t want to have an abortion. When Gemma approaches Cat about adopting the child, her sister thinks it’s a crazy idea but eventually agrees. Lyn believes the two of them are insane but can’t get either one to give up the plan.

The chapter ends with an observer’s story. A woman and her date are enjoying Opera in the Park when the woman notices a large family group picnicking nearby. A toddler in their group is taking her first steps. Everyone claps and encourages her. When the child steps into a dish of guacamole, someone comments that she has style. The observer’s boyfriend says the noisy family is ruining his evening. The observer is charmed by the family and disenchanted with her date. She says, “And I thought, Nah-ah. I gave him his marching orders during Beethoven’s Fifth” (293).