How It All Goes Down
- This chapter is narrated by Sarah, an English woman. The first thing she tells us is, "From the spring of 2007 until the end of that long summer when Little Bee came to live with us, my son removed his Batman costume only at bath times" (2.1).
- Her son is four years old, and only answers to "Batman."
- Sarah is there when Little Bee calls her husband, Andrew, but doesn't know it's Little Bee on the phone until later.
- Five days after, Andrew, a columnist for The Times, hangs himself. Five days after that, the day of Andrew's funeral, Little Bee comes to Sarah's house, which in an English suburb.
- Little Bee, Sarah, and the Dark Knight (a.k.a. Charlie) walk to the funeral together.
- Inside the church, Charlie wants to know where his daddy is. Sarah imagines how she will explain Andrew's death to Charlie later.
- Andrew's problems started the summer of 2005, the day that Sarah and Andrew met Little Bee on a Nigerian beach.
- Sarah tells us, "The only souvenir I have of that first meeting is an absence where the middle finger of my left hand used to be" (2.15). Now that's intriguing.
- She remembers the day Andrew died. He tried to tell her something before she went to Nixie, her fashion magazine, but she walked away without hearing it.
- Around noon, the police came to Nixie and told Sarah that Andrew hanged himself in their home.
- Now Sarah's mind drifts back to the present, the funeral.
- Charlie asks Sarah again where Daddy is. She reminds him that Andrew is in heaven.
- Charlie wants to know where heaven is, and why they're putting some big box in the ground.
- Soon, Charlie puts it all together, and jumps into the hole on top of the coffin, screaming, "Mummy! Get him out OUT! Get mine daddy out of heaven!" (2.201)
- Little Bee is the one who goes down into the hole to help Charlie out.
- After the funeral, the three of them walk back to Sarah's house.