Bone Gap

Charlie chronicles his long, strange, and often sad life. He describes the loves he’s had, his children, and grandchildren. He had a horse he loved with all his heart, Thunder, who just kept getting thinner and weaker. He realized, too late, that he, Charlie, was color blind; he had been running the horse way too far to the wrong color marker every day. Charlie came to Bone Gap to escape heartache and met Sally. They had a child and were together for thirty-six years before she died. Then, Roza showed up, and he loved her. Originally from Poland himself, he was excited to speak Polish with her.

Finn asks him about the kidnapper. Charlie muses that he thought the horse would be enough to cheer them up. Finn demands answers, and Charlie says that Bone Gap has gaps people can slip into: The gaps in Bone Gap aren’t “typical;” they exist “[i]n the space of things” (283). You can “lose yourself, if you believe they’re here” (283).

A man called the Scare Crow is master of this. Charlie tells Finn the Scare Crow is a betting man and that the horse can’t come with Finn to The Fields.

Finn wanders through the cemetery where the horse has taken them, down the lane past Petey’s house, past Miguel’s house, and along the main road. He’s very tired. He finds Calamity, who climbs on his chest. He realizes he needs to go into the corn. He says bye to Calamity and goes into the corn. He wades through a stream, where he emerges into a dusty road that leads to a carnival with trucks and rides. He searches for Roza, but every person at the carnival claims to be her. He knows they’re not her. The kidnapper says that Roza is his and that Finn won’t ever find her.

Finn wanders into a house of mirrors. He doesn’t recognize himself in the mirror, only seeing “a young man with black hair” (294). A little girl tells Finn he won’t find Roza; many others at the carnival tell him the same thing. Finn makes the kidnapper a bet: that he can find her and that, if he does, the kidnapper has to let her go. The Scare Crow accepts, then turns the landscape into a tilt-a-whirl. Everything—all the people—flip and dangle. The world spins around Finn. He says sorry as he watches them, worried that it could take him forever to find Roza.

Petey reads the poems Finn wrote for her. Mel checks on Petey and sends her on an errand to bring honey and cookies to Darla at the cafe. Petey is happy to be busy, and she goes out. When she does, the Rude boys are nice to her, which confuses her. Everyone is exceedingly nice to her, as they all think Finn did something terrible to her. She is angry that everyone thinks she has been taken advantage of. She hops on her moped and notices the toilet paper hanging from Finn’s house. Sean tells her Finn isn’t there. She helps Sean take the toilet paper down.

Roza tries to break free from being stuck, and Finn finds her. She’s upset he’s not Sean but is happy to see Finn. The Scare Crow says Roza can go but that Finn has to stay unless Roza stays in his place. Roza takes a shard of mirror from Finn’s back pocket and cuts her face from her ear to her mouth, mangling her face. She turns the man’s question around on him, asking if he still loves her. He is so angry and says she is his but that she has ruined herself and that no one will want her now. Roza says she doesn’t want anyone that would care. She and Finn run as the people turn on the Scare Crow and move toward Roza and Rus, who is with her. They escape The Fields and make it back into Bone Gap’s corn. Finn asks if Rus is a wolf, and she says no. She feels happy that it’s finally over.

Finn tries to help Roza with her bleeding, and they walk home arm-in-arm. Finn tells her to go easy on Sean. When they get back to the house, the whole town is there, abuzz. Roza insists Sean stitches her face. He doesn’t want to mess it up, but he complies, making the most perfect stitches he can. Finn and Petey apologize to each other. Finn forgives her, and Petey draws the people of Bone Gap away from the house. Later, Rus lives with them and the cats. Roza recognizes the mysterious horse, Night, as her babcia’s. She tells them she is going back to Poland to see her grandmother. She promises to come back. Finn tells her the scar makes her more beautiful, and Roza tells him he isn’t that blind.

Due to the sparse details available and the townspeople’s propensity to gossip, they imagine Finn’s heroism and how the events that brought Roza back played out. At a community gathering to celebrate Roza’s return, the townspeople chat and dance with one another. They wear masks and play a game where they have to guess who people are without seeing their faces. Finn excels at this, figuring people out by their physical movements and who surrounds them. Afterward, Roza and Sean chat. Finn and Petey flirt with each other and run through the cornfields, laughing.