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Summary

The Lovers, the Dreamers: Chapters 39–51

The narrative shifts to several months prior, with Patch waking up in the bunker for the first time, having just been captured. It is pitch-black; he remembers the day that military officers showed up at his door and told his mother that his father had died fighting in Vietnam. He is in great physical pain, though the wound in his stomach has been stitched up. Someone takes his hand, and he realizes he is not alone in the bunker; there is a girl with him. She smells nice, and gives him a pill to swallow with water. She refuses to tell him her name owing to fear of “the big man” listening, and tells him to kneel and pray whenever the man comes into the bunker, saying that this is the reason she is still alive while the other girls aren’t. 

The girl is calm and eccentric. She lists off random facts and historical anecdotes, breaking off to lead Patch in prayer when the man comes down into the bunker to check on them. The girl comes and goes, encouraging Patch to keep faith that he will survive. She tells him that he will be stronger than everyone else once he escapes. Patch tells her about Saint, saying that now that Patch is gone Saint will realize she doesn’t need him anymore. The girl doubts this, telling Patch that Saint loves him. He asks her name again, and she tells him it is Grace. 

Grace keeps Patch entertained with lectures on history and myth and places in the world. She speaks of his future and, in essence, keeps him going. She begins to tell Patch to “paint” pieces of his life for her—that is, to describe it in detail. As they speak, he works away at a loose brick with his nails, slowly prying it from the floor. Grace forces him to exercise with her, and sneaks him peanut butter cups when she leaves the bunker. He asks her to tell him what happens when she leaves, and she refuses, telling him only that it’s not what he fears. That same night, he frees the loose brick, and when the door opens, he smells gunshot. 

The next time the man comes into the bunker, Patch tries to take him out with the brick. He hits the man, hard, intending to escape with Grace, but is too slow. The man grabs his ankle, and Patch knows he cannot fight. 

Patch regains consciousness, coming to after an unknown amount of time. He is wracked with fever and nausea. Grace tells him to close his eye and entertains him with descriptions of New York City. As she is speaking, they hear music drift down into the bunker for the first time. She helps Patch stand and dance, though he is in great pain; a broken rib has punctured his lung, and he is bleeding internally from a ruptured spleen. They kiss as the music ends. 

Patch is close to death, barely conscious. In an effort to keep him awake, Grace describes for him the big white house she grew up in. She kisses him, and he tells her that he will always find her and keep her safe. He blacks out, and doesn’t remember the fire or how she ends up saving him.

Previous section The Pirate and the Beekeeper, continued: Chapters 19–38 Next section The Painter: Chapters 52–68

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