Chapter Twenty-Three

Jeremiah and Conrad head out to surf again, giving Belly space. From the porch, Belly watches them and slips into nostalgic thoughts of being eight—before grief, divorce, and heartbreak. The quiet highlights how much has changed and how alone she feels in a once-crowded, familiar house.

Hungry and finding little in the kitchen, Belly takes one of Conrad’s beers and returns outside. Drinking badly but determined to fill the emptiness, she sits with the unusual feeling of being alone at the beach house, a place that has rarely been empty in her memory.

Mr. Fisher arrives unexpectedly in a suit, startling Belly. She immediately regrets not forcing Conrad back to school sooner, sensing that giving him time has allowed trouble to catch up. Mr. Fisher notes the beer, sits beside her, and asks how Conrad is. Belly reflexively says Conrad is good, then recognizes the falseness—Conrad is grieving but galvanized by a purpose: to fight the sale of the house, even if it means opposing his father.

The conversation stalls into stiff small talk about school and college, exposing the gulf between them. The silence leaves Belly with a heavy sense of impending trouble, signaling that a confrontation over the house and Conrad’s defiance is imminent.