Pie

Charlie takes Alice to his house, where his mother fixes them lunch, and he repairs Alice’s bicycle chain. Charlie’s mother tells him that he has many grocery orders. When he says he cannot possibly do them all in one day, Alice volunteers to help him, hoping it will keep her mind off the trap she set for Sylvia.

The two spend the afternoon delivering groceries around the village. They find that many people want pie-making ingredients. A number of cooks express frustration at not being able to duplicate Polly’s pies. Alice repeatedly gives hints about how to improve the various recipes, surprising Charlie and herself with her knowledge. She finds that some want to win the Blueberry Award while others just want to relive the joy of her aunt’s pies and share it with their loved ones: “That afternoon she had discovered her aunt Polly’s spirit alive and well in all the kitchens in Ipswich where pies were being baked for the right reasons” (150).

Alice arrives home to find that Lardo has not yet gone to the pound. Her mother has suffered another pie failure, this time with rhubarb, and subsequently gone to bed with a headache. George prepares two TV dinners.