Solaris Chapter 5 Summary

Rheya

  • Still upset, Kelvin struggles with his mechanical bed and then he sees Rheya, who died when she was nineteen and in a relationship with Kelvin.
  • Kelvin thinks he's dreaming.
  • They kiss, and Kelvin starts to think that maybe he isn't dreaming at all, which is upsetting since Rheya is dead and they're kissing and everything. Ick.
  • He checks Rheya's arm and finds a hypodermic mark. That's how she killed herself. Except if she killed herself, she shouldn't be walking around, obviously.
  • Kelvin remembers Rheya's suicide: She killed herself after he left her, which makes him feel guilty, as you'd imagine.
  • Kelvin stabs his hand with one of the misshapen tools to wake himself up, but no go.
  • Rheya is confused and disturbed because she doesn't know how she got there.
  • Kelvin shaves and tries to leave Rheya in the room, but she says she can't be away from him.
  • Kelvin thinks this is very unlike her—Rheya wasn't one to make a nuisance of herself.
  • He tries to hold her arms behind her while he finds something to tie her, but she throws him across the room without really exerting herself or seeming to mean to.
  • She is a super-powered dream ghost. Unexpected.
  • He gives her sleeping pills, but that doesn't work either; she just takes them and then laughs at him.
  • She tells him he looks all stuffy like Pelvis. Pelvis is some guy whom Kelvin met after Rheya died, so Rheya shouldn't know about him—but then again, Rheya shouldn't be there at all since she's dead.
  • Kelvin caresses her and has an impulse to kill her. He remembers Snow's bloodstained hands, and figures out that Snow must have killed one of his own visitors.
  • The two decide to go out; Kelvin needs her to put on a flying suit. She tries to take off her dress, but there're no fastenings; the buttons are just decorative.
  • So how did she get into the dress? Magic.
  • They go out to a launch rocket, and Kelvin tricks Rheya into going inside. He locks the door on her.
  • Rheya starts to bash at the door from the inside, shaking it with superhuman strength. She calls out to him, "Kris! Kris!" in a voice that doesn't seem human.
  • Freaking out, Kelvin launches the rocket into space. He feels satisfied with himself.