Chapter 13 

The Senator squeezed Kelly’s hand just slightly too hard, hurting her, just as her lover, G, had sometimes hurt her during sex. G had told her he never meant to hurt her, and she had said she knew.

Now, in the car, she feels trapped by the pressure of the door and the safety belt just as she once felt trapped under G. Her leg is pinned and her knee has been crushed. She hears the Senator say “oh God” but cannot think of his name. There were no witnesses to the crash, and Kelly wonders if she is going to die.

She knows that the Senator chose her, but this came as a surprise to Buffy, particularly when Kelly decided to leave the party with the Senator and drive to catch the ferry. Buffy had wanted Kelly to stay the night and explore the island the next day.

Buffy is very beautiful, whereas Kelly has starved herself since her teenage years, first to discipline herself and then to punish herself for having fallen for G. She has recently regained some weight and is thought “normal” again, but she has avoided her parents’ home and its political quarrels. She and the Senator have discussed Carl Spader and his magazine; the Senator congratulated Kelly on a recent article she had written, and she felt his eyes on her.

Out on the dunes behind the St. Johns’ house, the Senator kissed Kelly unexpectedly. This was largely why Kelly went with him in the car, knowing he had chosen her.

Chapter 14

Kelly is a Scorpio, but she tells herself she doesn’t believe in astrology or horoscopes. She volunteers for the National Literacy Foundation of America and is contemptuous of ignorant people, including her own parents, whose conservative beliefs she rejects. 

Like Artie Kelleher, the Senator went to Andover. He then went to Harvard for his BA and law degree, while Artie went to Amherst and Columbia. The two backgrounds were similar, and the Senator also has children Kelly’s age, but he is separated from his wife. Kelly did not ask about his family. She let him kiss her on the beach.

As the car sped toward Brockden’s Landing, Kelly realized they would not make the ferry. She had touched no other man since G and was listening to the nocturnal insects copulating, wondering whether she felt ready to go to bed with the Senator. The Senator seemed to be driving skillfully, although he was drunk, and so Kelly felt sure that nothing bad would happen to her, even when she told the Senator that she thought they were lost.

Chapter 15 

As the car goes into the water, the Senator’s head knocks against Kelly’s, and the Senator undoes his safety belt, then forces himself out of the door against the weight of the water. Kelly is terrified, grabbing at his arm and then at his leg, begging for him not to leave her. He kicks her in the head as he exits the car.