The Sweetness of Forgetting

Mamie is in a coma, and Hope feels that “[t]he last person I can rely on is slipping away” (206). Alain visits Mamie often and recalls stories from their youth. Annie is frustrated that she cannot find Jacob Levy and starts a fight with Hope. Hope discovers that Sunshine, Rob’s girlfriend, is trying to compete with Annie for Rob’s attention, and Annie feels that she is losing. Hope realizes that Rob is insecure and foolish, and she let herself be used as a doormat for a decade. Hope meets Sunshine and confronts Rob about his behavior toward Annie, thinking, “I wish for the zillionth time that I’d realized in my early twenties that having a baby with a selfish man meant that my child would always have to deal with that selfishness, too” (216). Rob says that she’s changed, and Hope realizes that she’s not going to be a doormat anymore. She tells Rob that, as her father, he needs to put Annie first. She is grateful that their relationship is over and leaves the house feeling free.