Hello again, let's get into it!
In the last chapter, the four idiots had been creeped on, shaved and starved for two weeks...and now they're going swimming - hurray!
Cathy and Chris climb down the rope ladder (they keep calling it that - it's a bunch of sheets tied together) and sneak out to the small swimming hole that their mother told them was near by.
Sorry - I'm still stuck on the fact that one of them could have left and gotten help in the three years they'd been up there and yet none of them thought of that.
When they get to the lake, Chris's first question - of course - is if they're going to skinny dip, and at this point I keep thinking I've reached my limit of being disgusted by everything this kid says, and yet...
So Cathy freaks out - he pulls her under the water, sings a creepy song about a ballerina - usual stuff you'd expect. While they're laying on the grass afterward, talking and looking at the stars, and Cathy's gotta make it weird and talk about how her brother is all wet and glistening and details about how his body is changing, all the way down to the "hillock of his maleness before his strong thighs, starting to swell."
...just gagged a little there.
They talk about where there mother might be - seeing as she's been visiting them less and less and didn't show up once during the weeks they were starving to death. Chris, as usual tries to defend her, saying that, maybe she's sick or on a business trip for her father, but Cathy rightly shuts him down at every turn. Good on ya. Why is Cathy the only one with a brain in here? Chris gets all pissy about it, because he doesn't want to start doubting her, but Cathy asks if he still loves and trusts her as much as always. He tries to insist that where ever Momma is, she's thinking about them and - listen - I've read three of these books and I can assure you... no she's probably not.
When they get back to the house, Cathy makes the argument I did in the beginning of this that they could leave and get help - not go back up to the attic at all - and Chris....ignores her and climbs back to the roof. Okay, guess that's the end of that for a while? There's almost some tension when Cathy has trouble climbing back up to the roof and is actually relieved to be back in the attic but- again - why aren't you more concerned your brother doesn't want to go for help? Ugh.
The next chapter opens with Cathy cutting out pictures from magazines and planning for the future, daydreaming about having an emerald tub that she can fill with perfumed oil and soak in all day. It's things like this that really make it hard to feel any sympathy for this character. It's not just that she's fantasizing about her future life it's just that the things she imagines are weird and shows she really hasn't grown much as a character despite the years going by. She just always comes off as spoiled and vain.
Anyway, she tries to ask Chris about their mother again and want to escape with the rope ladder now that they're not starving anymore. This really feels like it should have come earlier.
Chris bites her head off, because he's an asshole, and keeps staring out the window. Cathy's first impulse when he's in a bad mood is to start kissing and caressing him and putting his head in her breasts like their mother would. (-gag-) but holds off, because she realizes that it's Momma he wants and misses. That does not make it better. This entire family still has huge boundary issues that I'm sure I've ranted about before but - oh my God.
They talk wistfully about wanting to go somewhere warm where harsh wind never blows and the sea is warm without any big waves and then Cathy asks Chris to move away from the window again, because they're not supposed to open the drapes or look outside in case someone sees them. Chris flips out again and starts shouting that they can't leave and get help because where would they go - they have nothing - he'd never get into med school and be stuck supporting a family of four at sixteen and... Dude, go to the police. No one's suggesting you just try to live on your own. Go to the cops and have these people arrested and I assure you your lives will be infinitely better.
Instead the Grandmother comes in and yells at Chis to get away from the window - and he rounds on her, causing her to rehash all the reasons she hates them because of what their parents did that we already read about in part one. Chris full unloads on her, giving the Grandmother a "Reason you suck" speech and calls her out on what she's doing. Almost makes me like him. But not quite.
The Grandmother storms out of the room and comes back with a willow switch and tells them that if they try to hide in the attic they wont eat for another week and then she'll whip Chris, Cathy and the twins as well. She drags Chris into the bathroom and makes him strip down (because her "no looking at people of the opposite sex" rule doesn't apply to her, I guess) and the twins come out of the attic right as she starts whipping him. Cathy tries to shield the two of them on the bed while screaming bloody murder while Chris doesn't make a sound.
When she's finished, the Grandmother orders her to be quiet and when Cathy doesn't stop screaming she drags her off the bed toward the bathroom. The twins run to try and protect her (Cory biting at the Grandmother's legs again - I'm convinced this kid is actually a chihuahua) but but the Grandmother flings them aside and pulls Cathy into the bathroom and makes her undress.
" 'I am going to get even one day, old woman... There's going to come a day when you're going to be the helpless one, and I'm going to hold the whip in my hands.... God sees everything, and he has his way of working justice, an eye for an eye in his way Grandmother!' "
Keep all this in mind, it will definitely come up in the next book.
And honestly, Cathy screaming her revenge to the heavens is kind of awesome. Part of me wishes we got to see more of this side of her than the part that takes after their mom.
The Grandmother, however, is not as impressed and starts beating the shit out of her while the twins scream from outside the bathroom for Chris to protect her. When the willow switch breaks, the Grandmother grabs a hairbrush and starts beating her with it, finally hitting her in the side of the head and causing her to black out.
I just need to address that I normally don't talk about abuse this casually but... honestly, the descriptions aren't that strong and even though it's from Cathy's POV, it's still really not as intense as it could be and you don't really feel any danger for any of them.
When Cathy comes-to, Chris is treating her injuries and has soothing ballet music playing. Both of them are naked and I'll let it slide this time since they're both covered in open wounds that haven't been patched up yet. (But Chris is on thin ice) He sent the twins up into the attic so they could avoid seeing the worst of this.
It's when they start cuddling under the sheets - not having put anything on even when the cuts and bruises were taken care of - and Cathy mentions her breasts a few more times - that I start getting really squicked out again. Seriously - people with siblings, what are your thoughts on all this? Because I'm grossed out.
Chris starts kissing her and for once Cathy actually puts up an argument, saying that this was what the Grandmother thought they did and that it's wrong. Chris blows that off saying "there's more to love-making than kissing" and - bro - you're still not supposed to have naked cuddles and make-outs with your sister.
Cathy drifts off while thinking overly romantic things and I'm gonna go take a very long shower and maybe feel clean again sometime next century.
