Other Voices, Other Rooms Part II, Chapter 7 Summary

  • Isabel comes down the road and Joel tries to scare her, but she already knows he's hiding in the trees.
  • She invites him to come fishing with her and Henry, and he agrees because he doesn't want to be alone.
  • At the creek Idabel lets Joel wear her green-tinted sunglasses because it makes everything look prettier. She tells him she got them at the traveling show that comes to town once a year.
  • They share a cigarette and Idabel blows smoke rings.
  • After chatting for a while Idabel gives Joel a bar of soap to wash with in the creek, and he's embarrassed because she's a girl. She tells him that she wants to be a boy and that he shouldn't think she's like a girl or they won't be friends.
  • In the creek Idabel laughs at Joel because he's so skinny and white, and then shampoos his hair.
  • They sit down to dry in the sun and Idabel puts on her sunglasses. Joel lies and tells her he never cries, and she says that she does sometimes but that he can't ever tell anyone.
  • Joel tries to kiss Idabel on the cheek, and she goes berserk, fighting him. In the scuffle he crushes her glasses under his butt and they cut him, making him bleed.
  • Joel apologizes about the glasses and she says that it isn't his fault.