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Summary
Chapters 6-10
Chapter 6, The Hastings Cafeteria
Elizabeth and Calvin sit together at lunch, and their colleagues unkindly comment that they are unfairly lucky due to their genetics. Eavesdropping on their lunches together, Frask and other colleagues speculate and gossip about their relationship. Elizabeth’s capability as a scientist is regularly called into question, as are her motivations for dating Calvin. During one lunch, Calvin proposes marriage to Elizabeth, but she refuses, as she believes that if she married him, he would get credit for her research. Calvin insists that marriage wouldn’t affect her identity, but Elizabeth continues to refuse. Stung, and having already had a bad day where he was forced to deal with fraudulent letters from “family,” Calvin retracts his proposal, leaving her stunned. The chapter ends with a mix-up where Calvin’s mention of wanting a "family" makes Elizabeth panic. She thinks he means children, but he clarifies he’s suggesting they get a dog, which brings them back into harmony. People observing their relationship resume pretending to be disapproving, while really being jealous.
Chapter 7, Six-Thirty
After shopping, Elizabeth comes across a stray dog, which follows her home. Calvin sees her returning with the filthy, shaggy dog, whom they name Six-Thirty after the time when she found him. Six-Thirty, formerly a bomb-sniffer in training, had failed at his tasks at the military Camp Pendleton and was thrown out. He’s intelligent and loving, however, and decides to make good for his failed army career by protecting Elizabeth and Calvin with all his might. Calvin decides to bring Six-Thirty to work at Hastings, which is only allowed because of Calvin’s standing. Six-Thirty adores Elizabeth unconditionally, and a significant portion of the novel is told from his perspective from this point onward.
Despite her intelligence and dedication, Elizabeth's contributions and ambitions at Hastings are minimized because she’s a woman. Donatti is skeptical about her work in abiogenesis because he thinks of that subject as being too difficult for her. He tells Elizabeth that “Abiogenesis is more of a PhD-university-this-topic-is-so-boring-no-one-cares sort of thing.” Even though the work Elizabeth is doing is good enough to merit repeated contributions from a mysterious donor, Donatti still believes she shouldn’t be running a lab. He hasn’t told the donor that Elizabeth is a woman, so they expect to see more work from “Mr. Zott” coming out of Hastings. Calvin goes to Donatti to argue for Elizabeth keeping her job when he threatens to fire her. When Elizabeth asks Calvin if he helped, though, he denies it.
Chapter 9, The Grudge
Since he was 10 years old, Calvin has harbored an intense grudge against his father. The grudge began when a stranger arrived in a limo at the orphanage where Calvin lived, bringing educational materials for the children but not taking interest in Calvin personally. The orphanage bishop later “reveals” that the man is Calvin's biological father, who “decided against” reclaiming his son after meeting him. Although none of this is true, the younger Calvin decides never to forgive his “father” for the rejection.
Chapter 10, The Leash
A new city law requires that Six-Thirty be held on a leash. Although Calvin laughs at Elizabeth for buying it, she insists it’s necessary for Six-Thirty's safety. Calvin still thinks she’s more worried than she needs to be but agrees to use it. Later, Calvin decides to run to the Institute with Six-Thirty. He plans to join Elizabeth for her drive home. He leashes their dog as Elizabeth asked him to, before they set off in the dark morning. The chapter ends with a horrible twist, as Calvin dies during this run, thirty-seven minutes after leaving the house with Six-Thirty.
Analysis
Almost every interaction between Elizabeth and Dr. Donatti makes the gendered violence women faced in the 1950s workplace painfully obvious. Donatti doesn’t have a legitimate reason for disliking Elizabeth. it’s just that he doesn’t want a woman in a senior position at Hastings, and he doesn’t rate Calvin Evans. He’s willing to antagonize them both in order to get what he wants, which is for Elizabeth to be fired and Calvin to make a mistake, messing up his sterling reputation. Even though Calvin respects Elizabeth’s work, the fact that he feels he has to intervene and save her from being fired is another form of gendered bias rearing its head. It’s not as obvious as the overt discrimination Donatti shows, but it still implies that he believes she isn’t his intellectual equal. Although Calvin respects Elizabeth's autonomy, his secret intervention to reinstate her project suggests that he believes Elizabeth needs his help to stay at Hastings. While well-meaning, by doing this Calvin becomes another man trying to influence the professional fate of a woman.
In this section there’s also the first instance of a chapter written from Six-Thirty’s perspective. This allows the reader to get an outside view of how Calvin and Elizabeth initially begin to expand and cement their family. When Calvin proposes, Elizabeth repeatedly declines because she doesn’t want to be remembered as the wife of a genius. She wants to be taken on her own terms and considered on her own merits. Calvin, who is startled and disappointed at the refusal, suggests that they get a dog when he realizes Elizabeth is serious about no marriage and no children. It’s clear that this is only a temporary measure to him, but it brings Six-Thirty into their house and their lab. Elizabeth and Calvin dote on the dog, treating him like a beloved child. Six-Thirty, who can apparently understand human speech, returns their affection and is determined to protect them at all costs.
The shocking moment at the end of this section—when Calvin dies while out on a run with Six-Thirty—resolves the question of where Calvin has gone by 1962 and the novel’s first chapters. Chapter 10 is detailed and procedural, with the author spending an unusual amount of time describing the actions Calvin takes before leaving the house. The last line of the chapter is grimly simple: Calvin leaves for a run with Six-Thirty, and dies “thirty-seven minutes” later.
