The Nature of Fragile Things

Content Warning: This section features scenes of domestic violence and references suicide.

Sophie and Kat are in a routine of visiting Candace in the afternoons and occupying themselves in the mornings. However, Sophie is conscious that they cannot continue living in this limbo. Kat wishes for a home where all the people she loves—Candace, Belinda, Sophie, and baby Sarah—can live together. She is also beginning to come to terms with the fact that her father might be dead.

Equally conscious of the need to move on, Candace proposes that she and Kat could live together at a cousin’s house in Texas. However, Sophie points out that separating Kat from those she has grown to love would be traumatic. She persuades Candace that the best option would be for them to all live at Belinda’s inn in San Rafaela. Candace wants Sophie to become Kat’s legal guardian after her demise. They set out on the train.

There is a joyous reunion at San Rafaela station, and Candace is enraptured with the green countryside, despite the damper climate being a hindrance in keeping her tuberculosis at bay. Sophie cannot help thinking “what a beautiful family Martin has made of us, despite himself” (273).