Forty-Five

With finals over, the group disperses, leaving Gwen and Arthur together in Maine. Van and Donna return to the panhandle to work for their father—Van gloomily covering town meetings, Donna edging onto camera. Van’s letters to Arthur confess drinking and malaise; Donna’s notes describe on-air stumbles and ambitions, plus exasperation with Van’s new habits.

Allie’s postcards track her summer travel and wry statistics, from bargaining over Van’s chewing tobacco to a theory about skirt length and airtime, and her promise to miss Arthur “100%.” Only Colin and Arthur have graduated; Colin departs for New York to intern at America Online, boasting by email about instant messages and chess-playing computers.

In Rackham, heat smothers Arthur’s small apartment, intensifying an eight-week stretch of physical closeness with Gwen. Reading Colin’s letter together, they joke about scientific hubris and savor a season defined by desire and shared ease.

Mid-summer, they drive to Vermont to move Erin from the halfway house into a modest Montpelier cottage near Black Cricket and an Episcopalian retreat where she will teach. Under skylights and on the roof, Erin basks in the sun, saying it finally washes prison from her. The day ends with wine, laughter, and macaroni and cheese Gwen brought from Maine.

Erin quietly approves of Gwen and Arthur’s relationship, noticing their joined hands with pleased, gentle scrutiny. That night, Gwen and Arthur make love beneath a lingering peach sky. Arthur mourns time passing; Gwen reframes it as gaining a day, capturing the chapter’s embrace of recovery, warmth, and forward motion.