Bones & All

In Sandhorn, Minnesota, Maren looks up Barbara Yearly’s number and address in a phone book. After a short drive, Maren greets Barbara in her driveway. When she shows Barbara her birth certificate, Barbara is surprised that they gave Maren “our name” (181). As they talk inside, Barbara reveals that she didn’t know she had a granddaughter. She took in Maren’s father, whom she calls Frank, when he was six. She says Frank was committed to a psychiatric hospital years ago. He had sent her pictures, but Barbara never met Maren’s mother, Janelle. Barbara’s husband, Dan, died of cancer a decade prior. She says that Dan and her boy, Tom, are together. She shows him a picture of three-year-old Tom on a tricycle.

Barbara says Frank was found under “mysterious circumstances” at a rest stop after getting off a bus with an odd man. Witnesses found the boy in the restroom, covered in blood. The man was gone. Barbara and Dan received a call from an adoption agency shortly after, and Frank was soon living with him. When Maren presses for more details, Barbara becomes brusque and says that Frank was a stranger to her, and so is Maren. She gives Maren the address of the hospital in Wisconsin where her father lives, wishes Maren good luck, and shows her out.

Maren waits for Lee at the Sandhorn library, where she finds her father’s picture in a yearbook. His picture shows her where some of her features come from. When Lee arrives, he sees that Maren has made nine photocopies of a full confession of her crimes, which she wrote in a notebook. He asks her not to send it that night, and they move on to Wisconsin.

They break into a model home to spend the night, and Lee bakes cookies. He tells Maren he has had one girlfriend—Rachel. Rachel had been visiting with him and Kayla when one of his mother’s drunk, abusive boyfriends arrived. He made Kayla and Rachel go into Kayla’s room so that he could beat Lee. Rachel came back out to help and saw Lee eating the man. She ran away in hysterics.

At Rachel’s house, her father wouldn’t let Lee in because Rachel was screaming about someone being eaten. He told Lee to stay away from her. Lee never went back to school, and he hasn’t seen Rachel in two years, because she committed to a psychiatric hospital shortly afterward. Lee cries and says he ruined her life. He didn’t tell Kayla because she still thought he was good. He occasionally returns home to look at the psychiatric hospital, wanting one chance to explain himself to Rachel.

In the morning, Lee is cold and distant. Now that Maren cares for him, it hurts. When they reach Bridewell Hospital, he’s hurt when she says that this is where they’ll separate. Maren says she doesn’t need him to wait for her. If she wants to keep living after seeing her father, she’ll go to Sully’s cabin.

Maren meets Dr. Worth. From the office window, she sees that Lee is still waiting in Barry’s truck in the parking lot. Dr. Worth says that Frank has never had a visitor, and she thinks it will upset him. She eventually relents, and says that, for her safety, an orderly named Travis will accompany Maren for a 10-minute visit. Maren notices that Lee is gone.

Frank cries when Maren greets him, but he doesn’t talk. Travis says the medication makes it difficult to speak. Travis also says that Frank didn’t expect her for a few more years. He gives her a notebook that Frank told him, in his first week, he wanted her to read.

The message greets her, and Frank wrote that the Yearlys never really wanted him. He says he was a forest ranger at age 22, which is where he met Janelle when she was working at the main gate. As she reads, Travis says Maren can stay longer and shows her a photo album called “OUR PERFECT SUMMER” (214). It has pictures of Maren’s young mother at camp.

Frank’s message says that Janelle didn’t know his secret. He insists that Janelle was never happier than when she was pregnant. She had wanted Maren badly. Then, while she was working a job at Whippoorwill Lake, a man named Robby had insulted Janelle’s body while he was drunk. One day, Janelle came home early and caught Frank eating Robby. It was eight months into the pregnancy. To Frank’s surprise, Janelle agreed to stay with him.

Frank admits that he ate the man at the rest stop. He eventually left Janelle because he couldn’t be certain that he would never hurt his family out of hunger. He didn’t write to Janelle because he worried that she wouldn’t respond. Near the end of the message, Frank writes, “Travis is the only one here who knows me” (219).

When Maren asks Travis if he knows about the message, Travis admits to reading the parts that Frank wanted him to see. The final passage talks about Frank ruining his own hand: “HAND IS GONE GONE GONE” (221). The remainder of the pages repeat Janelle’s name.

Travis then says that Dr. Worth is calling child protective services out of concern for Maren. As an alternative, he offers her a place to stay. She accepts but insists on knowing how her father ruined his hand. Travis says he thinks she already knows.

She meets Travis at six o’clock. It confuses her that he is calm with her, even though he is not an eater himself. He serves stew, and she is uneasy when he watches her eat. After dinner, Travis says that what happened to Frank’s hand was his fault. Travis had tried to find others like Frank and thought it would help if Frank knew he wasn’t alone. He told Frank about Maren and her appetite, but the news devastated Frank, who then mutilated himself.

Travis says he didn’t think Maren would eat him because no one wanted him. He claims that a law enforcement officer told him that the authorities often assume that eaters are responsible for missing people, although few will talk about it. Maren asks why Travis is isn’t afraid, and why he fixates on her and her father. Travis says he’s always been lonely and that she should understand. Then he starts to ask her for something nervously, clarifying that it’s not sexual because he doesn’t “even care for women in that way” (231), and she refuses to hear him out. Though he says his request would mean a lot to him, he promises not to ask again, and the nature of his question is not revealed to the reader. He drives her to Sully’s cabin. Outside, he starts to ask for the favor again, and Maren slaps him. After he leaves, Maren burns her confession and waits for Sully.

Inside, she finds Mrs. Harmon’s sphinx among Sully’s other mementos. Then she finds her father’s national park ID just as Sully arrives. They don’t talk much, but he promises to be there in the morning this time. She fumes while trying to sleep, because Sully has known about her father the whole time.