I'll Give You the Sun

When Jude wakes up, Noah is already gone, leaving her unable to confess about CSA. She makes her way to Guillermo’s studio with her sketches of Dianna for the sculpture. When Guillermo sees the sketches, however, his breath goes ragged. Upon realizing that Jude is Dianna’s daughter, he abruptly tells her that he cannot help her after all and tells her not to come back to the studio. As they are talking, Oscar rushes into the room, and Jude simultaneously sees Noah watching her through the window on the fire escape. He rushes in a moment later, and Jude is astonished to see fear on Guillermo’s face. Noah accuses Guillermo of causing Dianna’s death, and Oscar retaliates, saying that “No man has ever loved a woman more than he loved her” (345). Jude finally realizes that “Dearest” is Dianna, and Guillermo’s sculptures of couples are him and Dianna. Noah blurts out that Dianna was rushing to meet Guillermo and accept his proposal, revealing that this is what he was keeping a secret from Jude. Guillermo’s face fills with belated joy, but this is all too much for Jude to process, and she rushes out of the studio. Noah follows her, and Jude asks him if he lied to protect her and Benjamin. Noah explains that Dianna had not wanted him to lie about her life, but Noah has been unable to tell the truth, about her or about himself; therefore he has been avoiding Jude. Noah blames himself for Dianna’s death, because she was crying while she drove away after hearing Noah say that he hated her. As Jude consoles Noah and assures him it was not his fault, she breaks down and sobs for the first time since Dianna’s death.

Noah tells Jude about Brian and everything that happened. He believes he ruined Brian’s life, but Jude assures him he hasn’t, remembering the articles about him online. Jude finally confesses to Noah about what happened with CSA. Rather than upset, Noah is ecstatic—he was worried that he hadn’t been good enough and is thrilled to find out that that was not the case. Noah takes Jude to an abandoned construction site. One of the walls is covered with Noah’s work: multiple spray-painted images depicting everything that has happened over the past few years. Jude starts taking pictures, exclaiming how beautiful the paintings are and assuring Noah that he will get into CSA right away. However, Noah retorts that he does not want to go to CSA any longer. He doesn’t care about being good enough for an art school, because he has finally remembered the magic in art again. When Noah discovered that Jude was working with Guillermo, he was sure all his lies would unravel. Unable to just mind-paint anymore, Noah found the wall and began to paint again, wanting to get out everything that was in his head. As Noah takes Jude’s hands, all the discontent and ugliness of the previous years magically falls away; the twins run through the woods together, feeling light. When they play Rock, Paper, Scissors, for the first time they choose differently multiple times. They are happy, as it heralds “a new age” (353) in their lives. Noah assures Jude that he is not angry about what she did with CSA. He would have probably done the same thing, and perhaps had done so, in smaller ways, over the years. They discuss how Dianna possibly made the painting of the kiss hanging in Guillermo’s studio, and Jude contemplates Dianna’s relationships with Benjamin and Guillermo. Jude tells Noah that he must tell their father the truth so that he can finally heal and move on, just as Benjamin himself appears and joins them, having watched them run through the woods.

When Noah tells Benjamin the truth about Dianna, he responds simply with “Okay, yes. That makes more sense” (356); the root of his perpetual confusion following Dianna’s death is finally resolved. Jude confesses about CSA, and Benjamin is initially extremely disappointed. Later, however, he invites her out for a swim in the ocean, and he forgives her as he apologizes for not having been there for the twins after Dianna’s death. Noah and Jude make a pact: Noah will stop jumping off cliffs, and Jude will stop obsessing over Grandma’s “Bible.” Jude decides to make flying woman sculptures out of the paper in the “Bible,” a project she intends to title “The History of Luck” (356). That evening, Benjamin proposes a plan for them to move out of their current house and into a houseboat. Awed and delighted by Benjamin’s newfound lightness, the twins accept. Oscar arrives at the house and asks to talk to Jude alone. He tells her about how he knew Dianna through Guillermo. Oscar loved Dianna and was very close to her; she was the one who introduced him to photography, and she had talked endlessly about Noah and Jude to Oscar. Dianna believed that Jude and Oscar were kindred spirits and would fall in love if they ever met, and so had always jokingly told Oscar that he couldn’t meet Jude until she was much older. Accordingly, Oscar tries to tell Jude that it is not yet their time, but Jude points out that they are only three years apart. She does not want to deny destiny that has brought them together, compounded by the fact that both of their respective mothers seem to have “prophesized” about them being together. Oscar and Jude kiss, and they promise to love each other for a long time.

Noah and Jude together go to meet Guillermo at his studio. Guillermo confirms that their mother painted the kiss, surmising that she didn’t tell her children about her art for the same reason that Jude didn’t tell Dianna about her sand sculptures: because she was working towards perfection first. Guillermo reveals that he is the one who sent in the pictures of the sand sculptures to CSA: Dianna found them on the camera before Noah deleted them, and she showed them to Guillermo. Jude realizes that all along, Dianna wanted Guillermo, Jude, Noah, and Benjamin’s paths to collide, because each of them held pieces of the story that only they could respectively present to the others. Guillermo sets up canvases and paints for Noah to work, and Jude begins sculpting Dianna in clay. Jude tells Guillermo that she wants to continue working with him, despite everything—she has always felt a natural and easy connection with him—and Guillermo theorizes that Dianna broke all of Jude’s clay work so that she would be forced to find a stone sculptor. Jude finally returns Guillermo’s copy of Dianna’s Michelangelo biography.

Noah receives an invitation to CSA based on the pictures of his murals that Jude shows Sandy. Although Jude offers to give up her spot for him, Sandy tells her that she won’t need to. However, Noah has not decided yet whether he will accept the offer. Noah also finds Brian’s email ID and sends him a series of drawings he does, which he titles “The Invisible Museum” (370). A few days later, there is a response to his post on the Lost Connections website: “I’ll be there” (370). The following Thursday, as Jude and Benjamin emerge from the ocean after a swim, they watch Brian and Noah walk hand-in-hand out of the nearby woods. Dad tells Jude that although he assumed that Heather and Noah were together, “this makes more sense” (372). Jude agrees, and quietly wishes on a ladybug that has landed on her hand.