Z For Zachariah

Ann is living back in the cave. She has been there for two days. She recounts the events of the last six days and what led to her going there—something she felt she had to do to protect herself.

The day after Loomis grabs Ann’s hand, she goes about her day as usual to try to forget about it. She gathers eggs from the hens and milks the cows before cooking breakfast. When she takes it to his room, she feels “strained and tense” (164), but he acts normal, even making conversation about the field.

That afternoon, Ann plows and fertilizes the field, an act that makes her feel more normal and less anxious. However, when she looks up at one point, she sees Loomis watching her from the porch. Although she is not sure why, she grows anxious until he goes back inside.

At dinner, Ann is surprised when Loomis comes downstairs to eat at the dinner table, insisting that he is well enough not to eat in bed any longer. He again makes casual conversation, which makes Ann feel “a little more relaxed,” but as she notes in her journal, this “[i]s what he ha[s] intended” (167).

That night, Loomis sits in the living room. He asks Ann to read to him and tells her that he remembers her doing it while he was sick. She agrees, although it feels strange to read with him conscious, especially when he knows how to read himself. Still, Ann reads to him for an hour, first poetry and then Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. As she grows tired, she accidentally skips a few pages. Loomis does not even notice, and Ann realizes that he is not even listening to her read. She anxiously wonders why he is making her read if he is not listening, which makes her feel as though he is “tricking” her in some way. The thought makes her feel afraid, but then she gets mad at herself for feeling that way. She convinces herself that he is just bored and pushes her feelings aside.

The next night, Loomis asks Ann to play the piano. She feels slightly better about it, as she thinks that he will actually listen to her, but she grows uncomfortable when she is forced to sit with her back to him. As she plays, she hears his cane hit the ground twice. She spins around, anxious and expecting him to be behind her, but he is still seated. He says that his cane “slipped,” something she knows is untrue because it was hooked over her chair. She tries to play again but then tells him that she is too tired. He tells her that he will soon learn how to operate the tractor and can help with the field work, but all she can think about is how much she enjoys the work because she can be on her own.

The night after that, Loomis goes to his room instead of sitting in the living room. Ann is relieved that she does not have to entertain him. She goes for a walk with Faro and ends up sitting outside the church. She watches the sunset and listens to the crows, which are still in the belfry with several baby crows. On her way back to the house, she stops by the pond when she sees movement. Loomis comes out of the house—without his cane—and walks over to the tent. He checks inside the tent and then stands up and looks down the road. After a couple minutes, he goes back inside.

Ann waits until it is completely dark before going inside to her room. Faro sleeps on her. She lights a candle and falls asleep. However, the sound of Faro growling, yipping, and running from the room wakes her. She realizes that she can hear Loomis breathing in her room. She pretends to still be asleep as he slowly walks over to her bed and stands beside it. She feels his hands “groping” on the bed and then touching her in a “dreadful, possessive way”; she “kn[ows] what he [i]s planning to do as clearly as if he had told [her]” (175). When his hand pins her aggressively to the bed, she pushes him off, rolls over, and jumps up. She trips over his leg and then feels his hand grab her shirt and his fingernails scrape down her back. She manages to hit him in the throat and, when he stumbles back, escape the room.

Ann flees the house. She realizes that she can go back to the cave—never having told Loomis about it—but decides to go to the store first. She gets candles and a new shirt. She is extremely uneasy, flinching and dropping the candle when the door slams shut, and then scolds herself for being so afraid.

Once in the cave, Ann bundles in the blankets and watches the house. Eventually, she sees Faro come out from where he was hiding under the porch. He sniffs the ground and follows her scent. Loomis comes out of the house immediately and watches. Ann realizes that he had been waiting for Faro to return and will now use Faro to track her to the cave.

Faro shows up a few minutes later. Ann pets him, and just as it is turning into daytime, Faro leaves her again. She realizes, too late, that she should have fed him, as he goes back down to the house to eat. Loomis feeds Faro and then puts a belt around his neck and ties a cord to it, leashing Faro to the porch.

As Ann watches from the cave, she thinks of all the chores she should be doing. She contemplates whether she should do them as normal while keeping her distance from Loomis. She also considers whether he is strong enough to care for himself. She thinks that she might try to talk to him so that they can agree to live separately, her at the church or store. She realizes that Loomis might not be willing to agree to it.

That night, Ann watches as Loomis comes out of the house and feeds Faro. He then unties the cord from the porch and follows Faro as he tracks Ann’s scent. They make it only about 50 yards before Loomis stops and brings Faro back. Ann sees that Loomis is still limping and is likely waiting until he is stronger to track her to the cave. She also realizes that Loomis is getting Faro used to being on a leash and tracking so that, in the future, he can track Ann wherever she goes.

Ann takes stock of what she has in the cave. She has a few cans of food, some water, utensils, blankets, and her two guns with ammo. She tries to build a wall at the mouth of the cave to hide a cooking fire, but it grows dark before she finishes, so she eats cold beans. She decides not to sleep in the cave, fearing that she would be trapped if Loomis came, so she sleeps on a shelf above the cave.

The next day, July 1, Ann takes a circuitous route to the house, trying to leave a confusing trail back to the cave. She stops in the front yard and waits until Loomis comes out. He tells her that he “hoped” she would come back, and Ann is optimistic that he is regretful and wants to be “friends again” (189). However, she immediately dismisses the idea. She briefly wonders if he even remembers the things that he does but then tells herself that he is only pretending not to. She tells Loomis that they both need to survive, so she is willing to do the work and even get him supplies if he needs them. At night, she will leave again. Loomis listens and then admits that he has “no choice,” telling her that he “hope[s] [she] will change [her] mind” and will “act more like an adult and less like a schoolgirl” (190). However, Ann is firm that she won’t change her mind.

Ann goes about her work on the farm. She is anxious about where Faro is, thinking that he is probably tied up inside. She contemplates stealing him, which reminds her of Edward and the safe-suit. She realizes that no matter how things play out for now, everything likely ends with her tied up, too.

After she finishes her work, Ann returns to the cave. She feels more “hopeful” than she did before, thinking about how she could live this way and get used to it. She finishes building her fire pit and then sits and watches the house. She sees Loomis come out with Faro. He follows Faro behind the house and to the barn, and Ann assumes that he is making sure that Faro is actually following her scent. Loomis ties Faro to the barn door, and then she sees him start the tractor and drive it around in a circle, learning how it works. He then goes back into the house with Faro.

Ann writes in her journal that she now wishes that Loomis had never arrived in the valley. She considers whether there might be another valley that he or she could go to. She then thinks of Faro, wondering where he went for so long after Ann’s family left, perhaps to another valley and back.