I Have Some Questions for You

Walking to a coffee shop near campus, Bodie has coffee and tries to watch the video link of Wilde’s performance, which Jerome has sent her. The internet connection is weak, and the video plays with some trouble, freezing right as Wilde asks the man sitting beside her on a park bench whether he remembers “what it is to be twenty-one” (126). As the video freezes, Bodie works on her podcast episode about Rita Hayworth, recalling that the negligee Hayworth wore for her Life pinup was auctioned. As Bodie hopes that someone bought it for nostalgic reasons rather than sexually themed ones, she reads about another #MeToo story in USA Today, conflating the details among other similar stories that she recalls. Watching more Wilde’s video rouses her anger at Wilde, and she contrasts her own harassment at the hands of Dorian Culler with Wilde’s supposed consensual relationship with Jerome.

As Bodie walks back to campus, she relates that Omar has been stabbed in prison, right below his ribs, with a glass weapon wielded by another inmate. As she heads to class, she notes that he has been given Ibuprofen and minimal care in the prison infirmary, fainting from the pain. In class, her students continue to speculate on Omar’s possible role in Thalia’s murder.

Once in the podcast class, Bodie learns that Mike Stiles, who played King Arthur in the Granby performance of Camelot, is her student Lola’s uncle. Recalling her own hypocrisy and participation in inappropriate activities during her school days, Bodie recalls the infamous “Dick List,” a description of various Granby boys’ genitals: a document that she and the other girls either read or contributed to. (Mike’s entry, Bodie admits, was an impressive one.) Her memories of the list in this present-day context force her to acknowledge the full extent of the harassment she endured at Granby, for her and her friends’ prodigious knowledge of the boys’ genitalia was not necessarily gained voluntarily; Dorian Culler, for example, exposed himself in front of her on three separate occasions. As Bodie remembers Mike in this uncomfortable context, Britt asks Lola for his contact information to interview him, deciding to structure her podcast around the unanswered questions surrounding Thalia’s murder.

After the podcast class, Bodie shows Wayne’s World and clips from the TV show Lost to her film class as a way to introduce the cinematic construction of flashbacks as a form of exposition. Checking her phone, she sees that Yahav will soon travel to see her, and she promises him a nostalgic tour of Granby. She assigns the film Memento to her students for homework, imagining that they will most likely watch it on their phones.

Afraid to look at her phone, Bodie dreads learning more about Jerome’s alleged past behavior. When she finally checks her phone, she sees a text from Yahav, who plans to drive up on Saturday. Bodie confesses that, unlike Jerome, Yahav is the only man she befriended first before becoming more intimate.

Bodie discusses Omar’s failed appeal in 1999 and the subsequent creation of a website dedicated to proclaiming his innocence. Describing the website, Bodie notes a prayer for Thalia, a link for donations, transcripts from the police, and pictures from the mattress party on the night Thalia died. These pictures, credited to a photographer named Jimmy Scalzitti, served as a kind of proof for the timeline of that night, since both the date stamp and timestamp were turned on. Bodie remembers that her friend Geoff offered to develop them and retained the negatives and copies of the pictures. From that website, Bodie navigates to Reddit, where she explores some of the more outlandish theories explaining Thalia’s murder, including satanic rituals and cocaine use. As she searches, Bodie reminds the imaginary presence of Mr. Bloch, to whom she continues to narrate the story, that Omar remains in pain in the prison infirmary. Bodie then has dinner with Fran.

This chapter describes a speculative version of Thalia’s death if Robbie had been the murderer, relating a blow-by-blow account of how Robbie meets her in the gym after the Camelot performance and accuses her of sleeping with someone else when she refuses his advances. He shakes her and pushes her against a hard surface. Dragging her body to the pool, he changes her clothes, putting her into a swimsuit.

Back in the present day, Fran and Bodie go to the Granby Supper Club, where Bodie asks Fran why she called Mr. Bloch a “creeper” (149). Fran demurs, suggesting that he was weird but warning Bodie not to tell Britt about Bloch’s indefinably unsavory vibe. Fran asks about Britt’s approach to the topic of Thalia’s murder, and after learning that Britt believes Omar is innocent, Fran worries about the broader effects that the podcast might have. Dana Ramos, Bodie’s Biology teacher, approaches them and talks nonchalantly about Denny Bloch and his departure during Bodie and Fran’s senior year. The two friends recall the aftermath of the murder and the investigation of Omar quite differently, and to explain these differences to herself, Fran draws connections between Bodie’s own past trauma and her current interest in Omar and Thalia. Fran reminds Bodie that Omar was allegedly stalking Thalia and that his DNA was found on her body.

Bodie remembers a trip to a bar in Kern, a nearby town, with her friends when she was a student at Granby. Recalling the fake ID cards that Geoff made in preparation for the outing, Bodie recounts that Robbie’s lack of a fake ID caused him to have an altercation with Thalia. To make peace, Thalia approached Geoff for a fake ID just in time for Robbie’s birthday, before leaving to find Dorian. In her memory, Bodie calls Thalia the “dead girl” because the event occurred one week prior to the murder.

Back in the present day, Bodie logs in to Twitter after dinner and reads tweets about the accusations leveled against Jerome. Numerous tweets are addressed to Jerome’s accuser, Jasmine, offering support and demanding to know why Jerome’s gallery still employs him. Other tweets take issue with the allegations. Bodie becomes angry at the “easy online outrage” (164) against Jerome rather than recognizing that the scandal further represents the pervasive culture of harassment also exemplified by the behavior of Dorian and other Granby boys during her school days. Fueled by her anger and a bit too much alcohol, she recklessly responds to Jerome’s accusers on Twitter, writing a multi-thread tweet that casts doubt on Wilde’s accusations. In bed, Bodie speculates that Omar won’t sleep either that night, kept awake by the pain of his infected and poorly tended injury.

As her body itches in bed, she remembers that she and Thalia once faced a bedbug infestation, and that they both had to strip their beds and take off their clothes. They put everything in the dryers, using full heat to kill the bugs. They took clothes from other laundry baskets as they dried their clothes. Bonding over the bugs, Bodie noticed how thin Thalia had become. They showered and prepared for class before realizing how early it still was. Bodie sat down on her bed, and as Thalia yelled at her, Bodie understood herself to be contaminated again.

Back in the present day, Bodie meets with her podcast class, and the students present their first episodes. Britt’s request to interview Omar has been declined, but her episode features her interviews with Priscilla Mancio and with Bodie. Priscilla can’t remember anything about Omar but does discuss Robbie’s immaturity, working class background and Portuguese father. According to Priscilla, Robbie attended Granby on a scholarship. Granby remains in the spotlight of the students’ work as Alyssa, another student, presents her own project focusing on Arsareth Gage Granby, the wife of Granby’s founder, Samuel. Bodie recounts how, after graduation, she discovered that Arsareth had sold a number of people that her family had enslaved even deeper into enslavement. Reminded by the podcast, Bodie tells the students how she and her high school friends held seances to communicate with Arsareth. Inspired by Bodie’s story, her students also plan to hold a séance.

After class, Bodie goes to the dining hall to eat lunch alone. She conducts Google searches on her old classmates and discovers that many of them have turned out to be unexpectedly upstanding people. She finds Robbie on Facebook and searches through his public posts, remembering his habit of waiting for Thalia after theater rehearsals. Further online searches reveal that her old tormentor, Dorian, has become a labor lawyer. Bodie is surprised that her Granby peers have not achieved greater power or success in life. Her memories of Bloch resurface, and disorient her as she tries to process the difference between her troubled teenage self and her current adult persona.

Bodie recalls the details of “Feb Week,” a week-long vacation in February for Granby students to go skiing at their families’ vacation homes. Lacking this luxury in their own lives, Fran and Bodie stayed on campus watching movies. One night, as they watched Disney’s Robin Hood, Bodie went back to her room to fetch nail polish and instead found Thalia, who returned early from her trip with Robbie. Angry and upset, Thalia warned Bodie not to date Robbie, calling him names and alleging him to be sexist, angry, jealous, and addicted to alcohol. On Sunday, as Feb Week ended, Thalia got her period and calmed down. Bodie suggested that Thalia keep a journal to track her periods and mark the dates of her sexual encounters.

Back in the present, Bodie watches videos about the Thalia Keith murder, created by Dane Rubra, an internet personality who investigates the murder as an amateur detective. Concentrating on the blood found in the gym, Rubra raises doubts about the police’s theories and Omar’s guilt. Bodie recalls Dateline’s handling of the blood and the use of Luminol to trace its presence. Discussing Rubra’s theories about the quality of the police work, Bodie recalls that the investigation was curtailed after the murder because the head of the school, Dr. Calahan, felt pressured not to delay Spring sports, and the gym was necessary for athletics. Rubra criticizes the police work and points out that Robbie and Puja Sharma could both have had a key to the gym door. He closes his video by asking for more information about Granby.

That night, Bodie attends a party at Fran’s on-campus housing, and the participants discuss a string of crimes and accusations in the news that center on sexual- and gender-based violence. Priscilla Mancio, a French teacher at Granby, accosts Bodie and warns her about the damage that Britt’s podcast could cause for the Keith’s family. She mentions the Keiths’ home in Florida and talks about shared memories in the kitchen with Thalia’s mother. Priscilla warns Bodie to be cautious in using her own fame and recognition to pursue the matter of Omar’s possible innocence, and Bodie tells Priscilla that convictions are nearly impossible to overturn. Priscilla maintains that the true murderer was caught and convicted. Later, Fran and Bodie notice that Oliver and Amber, Granby’s Latin teacher, are sitting rather close together on the couch.

After Rubra mentions Puja Sharma as a possible suspect, Bodie imagines how Sharma might have killed Thalia and why. This chapter thus outlines a speculative version of a confrontation between them, in which Sharma slaps Thalia. Fearful of the social consequences, Sharma fights with Thalia at the pool before Thalia drowns.

When Yahav arrives to meet Bodie in the present day, she gives him a tour of the campus, connecting each place to her high school memories. She shows him buildings on campus and yearbooks from her time at Granby. Bodie notices Thalia’s yearbook photo and entry, seeing a cryptic message to someone called Deeb. During their walk, Yahav announces that he has accepted a university position in Boston, and that he needs a “fresh start in general” (200) before breaking up with Bodie. After they say goodbye, Bodie recalls the 1995 yearbook that she showed Yahav and realizes that “Deeb” refers to Denny Bloch, and she comes to see the yearbook as an artifact that provides proof of Thalia’s relationship with Bloch.

Bodie’s response to Wilde’s accusations on Twitter caused something of a social firestorm, and the public image of Starlet Fever is suffering as a result. Lance, her creative partner in the endeavor, calls to ask why she “liked” a racist gif portraying Senator Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas that was directed at Wilde. She offers to quit the podcast, but Lance demurs. She counters that the people behind these accounts on Twitter will comb through their podcasts and question all their future work.

As she processes her visit with Yahav and the call with Lance, Bodie takes refuge in a ravine on campus. Frozen and cold, she takes account of her losses: Jerome, Lance, and Yahav. Recalling the vague details of other #MeToo stories, she thinks about the woods and the shrine she built to Kurt Cobain there near the place where Barbara Crocker’s body was found in the 1970s. She tries to step on the frozen surface of the creek, and it groans but doesn’t crack. As she recalls how everyone failed her in her youth, Bodie comes to terms with the reality that Bloch preyed on Thalia. She reports that Omar’s condition has worsened, with his fever spiking.

The next time she sees her podcast students, they hold a séance in the Gage House. Having drank coffee, the students are excited, and they use the Ouija board to communicate with two “ghosts.” As the old building settles, Alder, frightened, moves closer to Britt. Bodie then remembers a boy at Granby who was labeled with a cruel slur against gay people and was taped naked to a pillar. The boy didn’t return the next year, and Bodie feels guilt for considering such abuse to be nothing more than normal hijinks at the time. Meanwhile, Lola has talked to her Uncle Mike, reporting that he was in a secret society at Granby. The conversation turns back to speculation over who the real murderer is, and Bodie tells Britt to investigate Bloch. Britt tells Bodie that she cannot get access to copies of the police’s transcripts of their interview with Bloch. Bodie repeats that the authorities homed in on Omar and didn’t consider other suspects.