You'd Be Home Now

Neil makes more flyers, and Emory repeatedly texts Joey begging him to return home.

Gage is in Arizona rehabilitating his right arm. He sends Emory a letter apologizing for the leaked photos and leading her on and signs the letter, “[y]our friend” (310). Emory remembers the intoxicating way that she felt when Gage touched her and wishes that she could experience it again to help her forget her pain.

Joey is now 18 and neither his friends nor family have heard from him. Liza and Daniel help Emory prepare a piece for the variety show, but she can’t find the right selection. Liza asks her how she feels, and Emory lists all the emotions that she’s experiencing with Joey’s disappearance and not seeing Gage anymore. Liza encourages her to turn her feelings into a poem and deliver it as a spoken word performance.

Neil prints more flyers. The police find Joey’s car 30 minutes outside of town. It had been ransacked, but his phone was inside. Emory thinks that her mother is escaping the problem by sleeping all the time, but her father says that she calls the hospital every day. Forgoing his nightly drink, Emory’s father holds her tightly as she reminds him to keep his phone handy in case Joey calls.

Lucy Kerr performs a Hamilton number at the variety show to memorialize Candy, but Emory is uncertain whether she can go on stage. After some encouragement from Mr. Stanley, she approaches the microphone and delivers her poem which chastises the student body for judging her without truly knowing her. She states that she would give up everything to have her brother back.

Emory’s parents praise her performance, and her mother even looks teary and proud. Daniel catches Emory in the parking lot to congratulate her and it’s obvious that they have a crush on one another, but Emory acknowledges that right now is not the best time for her to start a relationship. Daniel understands and tells her that he will wait. He encourages her to stay hopeful about Joey, explaining that many unseen things in the universe could be conspiring at this moment to bring him home. Emory likes the way that Daniel makes her feel safe and seen.

On the way home, Emory’s dad turns the car around, goes to the convenience store, purchases toilet paper and food, and delivers them to the people at Frost Bridge. At first, Abigail protests, claiming that it’s not safe and that she might ruin her expensive shoes. Neil proclaims, “if I can’t help Joey right now, I can help some people and so can you. Fuck your shoes and get out of the car” (326). His boldness takes Emory by surprise, but he claims that it’s time to end the unhealthy silence and act. The people of the Frost Bridge camp are thankful for the supplies, but no one has seen Joey.

Emory posts a message on social media addressed to Joey, begging him to return home and assuring him that their family will love him just as he is. The last line says, “I keep wanting love to be enough/ Because if it was/ You’d be home now” (329). Abigail climbs into bed with Emory and asks her if she thinks that she gave up on Joey. Emory says yes, but Abigail claims that she was just doing what she thought was right based on how she was raised. Emory reminds her to see Joey’s humanity. Abigail sobs as Emory holds her in astonishment, since she’s never seen her mother cry.

It’s Halloween and 13 days since Joey disappeared. Maddie is coming home for a visit, and it’s beginning to snow outside. Nana has healed from her injury but is staying until they find Joey. Emory dozes by the fire until Nana wakes her up with a phone call from an unfamiliar number. It’s Luther Leonard, and he tells Emory that Joey is with him. Luther demands that she steal all the money from their family safe and bring it to him to atone for the losses that she caused on the night of the accident. Joey gets on the phone briefly, and he sounds unwell and begs Emory to do what Luther says. Emory lies to Nana about the caller and moves to find the safe. She doesn’t know the code but guesses that it’s 867-5309 from her father’s favorite song. Emory takes everything from the safe, including cash and some jewelry, and calls Daniel to drive her to meet Luther. Daniel wants to call the police, but Emory refuses, fearful for Joey’s safety. Just as he instructed her, Emory calls Luther and he tells her to meet him at Wolf Creek Road, the site of the accident.

Emory forces Daniel to hide in the backseat since Luther told her to come alone. Luther is waiting, but she can’t see Joey. He asks for the backpack with the money, but she demands to see Joey first. When he emerges from the car, she can tell that something isn’t right. Luther says that Joey is high and that he gave him drugs because he is the only person who understands him. Emory hands over the backpack, but Luther grabs her by her bad leg, taunting and reminding her of the horrors of the night of the accident. He releases her, saying that they can’t drive away until he is gone. Emory gets into the car, but Joey stands still, and just as Luther is driving away, he tells Emory that stealing the money was his idea, jumps into Luther’s car, and speeds away.

Daniel holds Emory while she sobs and stares at the crash site, a place that has stolen so much from her and others. After returning home, Emory goes straight to the locked cabinet where her mother hid the pills, takes two Vicodin, and goes to bed, relishing in the feeling of painless bliss. She describes it, saying, “[i]t is beautiful, like wings, like Joey said” (347). When she awakens, Maddie is there and says that Daniel explained everything to her parents, but Emory makes her promise not to tell them that the theft was Joey’s idea. Emory goes back to bed and sleeps for three days, refusing to speak to anyone. She dreams about the people under the bridge.

Mr. Stanley comes to Emory’s house, pulls her out of bed, and forces her to accompany him to the cemetery. He shows her his mother’s grave and explains that his father had alcoholism and died by suicide. Mr. Stanley left town and moved to New York to escape the pain and to be in a place more accepting of him as a gay person. His mother got sick, and he came home to care for her and decided to stay and become a teacher so that he could help young people. Mr. Stanley shows Emory Candy’s grave which has a Hamilton quote for the epitaph: “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” (351). He also points to Wilder and Shannon’s graves and explains that life is full of sadness, but people must never lose hope. Though Emory feels overwhelmed by being in the cemetery surrounded by death, Mr. Stanley uses the moment to encourage her to not waste her life while she is still living and to not give up on Joey.

Liza visits and convinces Emory to go with her, Jeremy, and Daniel to the house where everyone buys drugs. Emory bravely knocks on the door and shows the older lady who answers the photo of Joey. The lady has seen Joey recently but doesn’t know where he is. She says that the kids usually go to “empty places” to hide. Before leaving, Emory asks her why she sells drugs, and the woman claims that it’s the way she makes a living. Emory realizes that the “empty place” is the Mill.

When they arrive at the Mill, it’s full of people, needles, and waste. There’s even a mother there with a newborn baby. Emory calls Neil and tells him and her mother to come quickly. Neil recognizes the young mother as a former patient from the ER. She was in recovery, but the doctors prescribed her painkillers after her C-section which caused her to relapse. Looking at the extent of need around them, Emory and her father implore Abigail to say no to the condo development and create a safe place for the displaced people of their town. Abigail says that she needs time to think about the decision, but in the meantime, the family visits the Mill daily to deliver supplies and for Neil to administer suboxone and provide clean needles. Still hopeful that he’s seeing her posts and texts after a month, Emory writes to Joey begging him to return.

Daniel accompanies Emory to Mr. Stanley’s home for the Drama Club holiday party. They share a kiss outside, which Daniel says is his first. As they kiss again, Emory receives a text from Max. He’s at a house in Franklin Township and Joey is there. Emory and Daniel race towards the address as Emory calls her father. Abigail is stuck in the snow at a meeting to discuss donating the Mill to create the recovery center.

Max meets Emory outside the house and tells her to pretend that she is there to get high. She finds Joey at the back of the house watching some people play a video game. He is barely conscious, but as soon as he sees her, he begins to cry, claiming that he doesn’t want her to see him like this. Emory is gentle with Joey and offers to help him. Daniel takes her phone to tell Neil to wait outside the house. Emory carefully assists Joey outside where Neil, who is sobbing, checks Joey’s vitals. Daniel gives Emory his scarf, revealing his scar.

Since Joey is 18, they can’t force him to get help, but they drive him to a place called Ridgecrest where Joey willingly agrees to be admitted. Emory knows that the path ahead is uncertain and long, but she is willing to go the distance to have Joey in her life. The chapter ends with a letter that Emory writes to Mr. Watson in place of her 30-page report on The Portrait of a Lady. In the letter, she explains that the book has made an impact on her life because she identifies with the protagonist, Isabel. Like Isabel, Emory was born into a life she didn’t choose and struggled as people made assumptions and judgments about her. Emory explains to Mr. Watson that helping Joey and working on herself are her priorities right now and the reason why she didn’t complete the paper. She encourages Mr. Watson to choose books for his class that help students see themselves and focus on being more “benevolent” and seeing the humanity in others. Emory states that Mr. Watson would be a better teacher if he chose to accept teenagers as they are instead of trying to mold them into a stereotype. She closes by acknowledging that, like the novel, life doesn’t always have a happy ending; the book taught her the importance of finding a way to rebuild her life after tragedy.