Day

Dan takes Nathan to school while Robbie stays home with Violet as both his school and hers are opening late. Violet confronts Robbie about when he is moving out. Robbie is surprised—as he, Isabel, and Dan agreed to keep it from the kids—and dodges the question. However, he considers whether he is teaching her to be mistrustful by lying, rather than protecting her as he intends.

Chess, who has a baby with Dan’s brother, Garth, comes into the apartment with their baby, Odin. She tells Robbie that she tried calling, but no one answered; she needs a babysitter for the day because Garth is running late. Robbie agrees to take Odin, insisting that it is no problem, as Chess rushes back out the door.

At school, Dan watches as Nathan joins his two friends, Chad and Harrison. He is grateful that their mothers are gone, as he always feels as though they judge his clothing and his economic status. He sees the way that Nathan tries to act like Chad and Harrison—who are slightly less childlike than the other children going into the school. However, he also notes that Chad and Harrison are closer with each other than with Nathan and wonders if Nathan notices. As Nathan dismisses him to join his friend, Dan thinks of how Nathan has no idea how “pure luck” has made him “white and healthy and smart,” and how Nathan accepts it “unencumbered by gratitude or guilt” (66).

Robbie sends out another post on Wolfe’s Instagram. This one is of a dog leash on a coffee table with a caption about his dog, Arlette, waiting for a walk. The apartment is a combination of three apartments stolen from other people on Instagram—each photo chosen “judiciously” to ensure that they seem as though they could be different rooms all in the same apartment. As he sends the post, he remembers that Wolfe is supposedly upstate in a country home; however, he then realizes that his followers won’t care as it already begins getting “likes.”

Isabel makes her way through Grand Central, walking slowly for the first time in her life instead of rushing to work. She notes how there are no benches or waiting areas, implying that Grand Central serves only as a point to pass through with no expectation of people stopping. She looks at the list of departing trains and wonders what it would be like to choose one and “shed” her current life.

At home, Dan plays his new song for Robbie. Robbie does his best to listen but is distracted by Odin becoming fussy and by his thoughts of Violet, for whom he recently bought a set of blocks. He thinks of how he never knows which toys Violet will like but he refuses to buy her anything else that is too “girly,” instead buying a variety of toys.

Dan plays the song several more times, adjusting words and asking for Robbie’s feedback. Robbie does his best to listen but keeps getting distracted by Violet building a tower of blocks and Odin becoming increasingly more agitated.

Garth comes into the apartment, apologizing for being late. He ignores Odin, crying in Robbie’s arms, and instead helps Violet build her tower of blocks. When he finally takes Odin, he immediately stops crying in Garth’s arms. Robbie watches him, wondering how Garth is so well-liked by Violet and so good with Odin, while seeming not to try.

Violet asks to go to the park, and Garth and Dan agree. However, Robbie tells them he needs to get ready for work. As they go to leave, Dan kisses Robbie on the lips—something they have been doing for years. However, this time, Robbie notices how Dan hesitates. He wonders if it is because Dan is grateful Robbie is taking moving out so well or because Dan has realized that Robbie and he are doing more to raise the children and take care of the home than Isabel. He thinks of how he and Dan are “the central couple” in the house as they “are the ones whose union is thriving, the ones who minister to each other” (80). However, the moment passes, and Dan leaves with Garth, Violet, and Odin to the park.

Chess, a college literature professor, sits in class talking to her students about Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth. She is annoyed that none of her students did the reading—or, if they did, they pretend they didn’t so they don’t stand out. However, she realizes that she has become less “stern” as the years go on and cares less that her students didn’t read. She tries to engage them in a conversation about the end of marriages serving as a focal point of literature, as modernist literature after Wharton will shift the dynamic. As her phone buzzes in her pocket, she knows it is Garth, who will apologize for being late that morning, which forced her to take Odin to Robbie. She realizes she would rather continue to “argue with her students than talk to Garth about showing up late, yet again” (86).

Robbie works on packing up his room to move out of Dan and Isabel’s apartment. He realizes that there are many things he always takes when he moves, regardless of their value, like several packs of paper clips and a handful of screws. However, he also thinks of the things that he has been unable to find. He is sure they survive each move, but he can’t remember where he last saw them, so he makes a list of these things.

One is a photograph of Robbie with his first boyfriend, Zach, as college sophomores. He considers the photo the “zenith” of their relationship, when Robbie thought they would stay together forever, before Zach realized that he was not really attracted to “guys.” He also puts his medical school letters on the list—both the acceptance and rejection letters from different colleges. He wonders why he kept them, as he never opens the envelope they’re in. Third on the list is a scarf that he got from Peter, one of his old boyfriends, for his 25th birthday. The scarf is something that Robbie would never wear. Next is a boarding pass from a flight he took from Miami when he heard from his father that his mother was dying. He did not make it to the hospital, nor did Isabel, before their mother passed away.

Lastly, Robbie adds the words “everything” and “nothing” as the final two things on his list. Under “everything,” he writes that he has “nothing” that “Adam didn’t touch”; under “nothing” he notes that “there is nothing here that Oliver did touch” (94).

As Dan and Garth walk in the park, Dan tries to tell Garth that he needs to talk with Chess, who is becoming impatient with his unreliability. However, Garth dismisses him, telling him that he has it under control.

Dan then thinks about their past. Growing up, they were both “desperados,” who broke girls’ hearts in high school, rode motorcycles, wore “ragged jeans” and had a “jaded unconcern” (96). However, now, Dan thinks of himself as having outgrown it: He married a successful woman, went to rehab for his substance use disorder after leaving his band, and is committed to being a stay-at-home father. Conversely, Garth continues to act unconcerned over his divorce and has had multiple DUIs, with Dan tracking his “missteps” if only for his own indulgence.

Robbie continues to pack as he thinks about Adam, his ex-boyfriend that he dated between Peter and Oliver. He remembers a night nearly two years ago, as they laid in bed in this same apartment. Robbie watched him sleep and realized that he was in love with him. However, a few months later, Adam left him for a younger violinist. He thinks of how Adam is the man he truly loved, who “left marks” on Robbie after he was gone.

Robbie repeatedly forces himself to stop packing and thinking about Adam to work on the Columbus essays his students wrote. However, he finds himself only reading the first line and giving them all “A’s.” He realizes that it is probably time to find new work. He compares himself to Wolfe, who he imagines is Robbie’s invented “soul.” He decides that he needs to commit to an apartment, find a new career, and find a man that he can imagine himself staying with for the rest of his life.

At work, Isabel sits with her boss, Derrick, and two of her coworkers looking at photographs from their latest project. The photos are of a transgender couple and their child. Derrick comments on how they “look too much like everybody else,” and Isabel’s two younger coworkers point out that they “are like everybody else” (104). Isabel notices how both coworkers have either already found or are looking for new jobs, and therefore are not afraid to argue with Derrick. Conversely, she is committed to the magazine, even though it will likely cease operations soon. She placates Derrick by suggesting that she get other options from the photographer. She realizes that Derrick will likely choose photos to make the transgender couple look more abnormal but does not have the energy to argue with him or defend the couple.

At the park, Dan and Garth arrive with Violet at the dog pen. However, she is disappointed by the fact that her favorite dog—a little white one—is not there. Dan gets a ball and plays fetch with one of the dogs in the pen, but Violet is uninterested, instead staring out at the horizon and hoping to see her favorite dog coming.

As Robbie struggles to finish grading his essays, he posts another photo to Wolfe’s account. This one is of a flower stand with a caption about buying all the flowers and continuing to drive north. Robbie wonders where they will end up, deciding they may go all the way to Montreal. He has never been, but envisions a place with “ice palaces,” where “lovers hold each other in candlelit rooms” (115-16).