Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Chapter 19 Summary

  • The committee project goes about as badly as you can imagine, and it turns out that Norman is slow, Philip is lazy, and Laura is a good worker but Margaret just doesn't like her (and we know Nancy has at least a little something to do with that).
  • It all comes to a head one day toward the end of the project when Laura and Margaret are staying late to use the encyclopedias. (Pro tip: Don't take the Internet for granted.)
  • Margaret finds out that Laura is Catholic, which gets her to thinking. In fact, she's thinking so hard that she ends up copying directly from the World Book—which is a big no-no.
  • Laura calls her on it, and Margaret gets defensive. Then Margaret accuses Laura of going behind the A&P with Moose Freed. Laura is very upset, and demands to know just where Margaret is getting her information.
  • Margaret starts to second-guess herself a little bit since her source is Nancy and she knows Nancy has lied to her before.
  • Laura storms off in tears, and Margaret runs after her, doing the best she can to apologize.
  • Laura doesn't exactly accept the apology, and Margaret ends up following her to Confession.
  • This is Margaret's first experience in a Catholic church, and she goes inside the confessional. It doesn't go that well though, and Margaret winds up feeling scared and sick.
  • Once she gets home, Margaret gets back in touch with God, and does her own confession of sorts: "Just because I felt mean I took it all out on her" (19.57), she says.