48 pages • 1 hour read
A Spool of Blue Thread
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Part 1, Chapters 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Can’t Leave till the Dog Dies”
Chapter 7 Summary
The accident kills Abby and the dog, despite the Whitshanks’ steadfast belief that “Whitshanks didn’t die.” Sammy, Nora’s child, doesn’t understand why Brenda won’t “come back from Jesus” (223). Amanda wishes to blame someone, while Nora blames herself. Louisa Hutchinson, the neighbor who found Abby and Brenda, tells the family that Abby sang as she died. Later, the family searches for Abby’s funeral wishes and bickers about what song to play at her service. Jeannie thinks it should be “Good Vibrations,” while Stem likes “Amazing Grace.” At lunch, Amanda makes a crack about people not eating casseroles anymore, then feels guilty when Nora affirms that she does so weekly. Jeannie begins crying when she thinks about going on the beach trip now without Abby, and how their beach neighbors might react. When Nora tries comforting her by saying that “God never gives us more than we can handle” (228), Denny refutes this by saying that people suffer greatly, daily.
Stem rifles through Abby’s papers one day, while Red reminisces about pictures and papers Stem hands him. Then Stem finds an old contract that agrees to hand him over to his birth mother should she be in the position to take him back. The paper also states that his mother isn’t allowed to reveal her identity. The paper reveals his mother to be B.J. Autry, the orphan everyone made fun of. Stem, hurt, accuses Red of withholding information, but Red swears that Abby never told him about the arrangement. Had she done so, Red would’ve encouraged them to give Stem back to his birth mother. This, too, upsets Stem. Eventually, Stem asks Red not to tell anyone and takes the document.
Abby’s funeral wishes are finally found. The family continues to come undone. Even the grandkids bicker. Though Red asks his daughters to help him with his appearance because Abby used to do it, he refuses their help after a few days. He then shocks them by announcing that he’s wearing a bright blue dashiki to the funeral. Abby made it for him for their wedding. Though his daughters protest, Denny says he can fix the raggedy shirt if he can find blue thread. Red then reminisces about his wedding. There were no pictures, so he fills his eager daughters in on what Abby wore. Though Red’s glad Abby died first, and he doesn’t want to wonder why she had to die, he admits that he still wonders why.
At Abby’s funeral, the Whitshanks are surprised to see Atta in attendance, as well as the woman who hit Abby and Brenda. When Reverend Eddie Alban can’t pronounce Amanda’s daughter’s name (Elise), the family worries. When they met the Reverend a few days prior, his youthfulness startled them. He’s never met Abby before, and he wasn’t able to get many of the particulars addressed on his visit because Red occupied the time with memories about Abby. Amanda reads an Emily Dickinson poem, while Elise says a few words. Merrick say that she was Abby’s dearest friend (which shocks everyone), then breaks down crying. The Reverend finally closes the service by asking, “What if heaven is just a vast consciousness that the dead return to?” (248). He suggests that the dead take their memories and make a report to others in heaven. This report defines what life was for them while on earth. Ree Bascomb (Abby’s friend) later warns the family that people will descend on the house after the funeral wanting food. Sure enough, guests inundate the house. When the guests finally leave, the family doesn’t know what to do next. With Abby no longer around, none of the jokes they might tell about the strange day seem to matter now.
Chapter 8 Summary
With Abby gone, the family wonders about remaining in the house. Red returns to work immediately, but Nora finds him in pain one day. Denny rushes him to the hospital, but it turns out to be indigestion. Despite their relief, Red’s daughters once again ponder him living in the house alone. Amanda wishes Stem and Nora would take over the house’s upkeep, but the secret contract still angers Stem. Red admits to his sons that he still reaches out for Abby in bed. He also dreams about her constantly. When Denny suggests he take a sleeping pill, Red accuses Denny of resorting to drugs for all of life’s problems.
Ree Bascomb brings the Whitshanks a spiked apple crumble, and the grown-ups eat it while catching up. Ree explains how her 20-year-old cat, Jeeter, just died, but Red mistakes the cat for Ree’s young grandson, Peter. He’s horrified at everyone’s calmness, then gets embarrassed when he finds out his mistake. To everyone’s surprise, Nora begins laughing uncontrollably, blaming it on stress. Ree asks about their next steps, and Red then shocks everyone by announcing that he’ll move into an apartment. The next morning, Stem absentmindedly tells Jeannie this news at work. She upbraids him for not questioning their dad further. To Stem, Red can do whatever he wants. He plans on moving out soon anyway. Jeannie calls Amanda, who also hasn’t heard the news, and they wonder if Denny has caused Stem’s sullen disposition by saying something rude. Jeannie then calls Denny and asks him pointedly about the entire situation. When Denny replies in his usual aloof manner, she admonishes him for not caring about anyone, causing Denny to hang up. Jeannie calls Amanda back, remorseful about the things she said to Denny. Amanda admits that she’s right, but Jeannie thinks back to when Denny helped her out when Alexander was born. She says, “I was afraid I was going to smash my baby’s head in!” (264), which shocks Amanda. Despite this, Amanda reminds Jeannie of Denny’s unreliable nature.
Denny finally confronts Stem about his grumpiness, so Stem tells him about the contract. Denny’s calmness alerts Stem to the fact that Denny, a notorious snoop, knew about his birth mother all along. Stem swears Denny to silence, saddened that he and the rest of the family made fun of B.J. Autry, and that he never liked her. Uncharacteristically, Denny admits that Stem is more of a Whitshank than he is: “You’re just following in the family tradition, is all, the wish-I had-what-somebody-else-has tradition” (272). Denny adds Stem’s story to the two-family stories, and then reminds a now calm Stem that even though Abby wasn’t his real mother, she loved him like she was.
The family’s real estate friend, a woman named Helen Wylie, takes Red and Amanda apartment hunting. They view several apartments, including a small unit where the tenant recently died. Though sad and forlorn, Red takes an instant liking to it. Helen’s also selling the house, and she instructs the family that it shouldn’t be hard to manage with upgrades. She suggests a his-and-her master bathroom, upgraded kitchen counters, and air-conditioning, all of which anger Red.
Jeannie and Amanda clear out Abby’s belongings. They set up boxes for what each family member wants, although Denny insists he doesn’t want anything. Jeannie thinks it’s a relief that Abby died so suddenly. This way, they didn’t have to endure her health declining gradually. One picture they remove causes them to recall a beach trip, with each having different memories of it. Amanda remembers fighting, while Jeannie recalls a nostalgic occasion. They also talk about how Denny pries into their lives, yet they know nothing about his. Amanda relates how Red got mad at her for suggesting that they reach out to the Brills—the original homeowners—to see if they wanted the house. The more they clean, the more they feel like they make a bigger mess.
Chapters 7-8 Analysis
Abby’s death leaves a vacuous hole in the Whitshank family. Despite her fear of being thought of as expendable, Chapters 7 and 8 underscore her irreplaceable value. Despite Red tending to the house, and her kids all growing up and producing families of their own, Abby’s death highlights that she was the “support beam” holding the family together. Even Atta, who despises how fake Americans act, attends the funeral, showing that Abby never came off as anything other than helpful. Merrick, too, though dramatic as usual, cries and laments the death of her “best friend.” Though her pronouncement, as well as Atta’s attendance, is comical to the family, it also highlights just how far Abby’s reach into other people’s lives might have gone without the family realizing it. Friends, like Atta, and family members—even curmudgeonly ones like Denny and Merrick—suffer from loss just as acutely as Red. This also underscores how people’s lives are comprised of far more information than any one person can be privy to. Despite Abby’s “story,” the version of her known by her family, there also exist stories of her that only Merrick, only Atta, or only Red know, along with stories that still others know. Like Abby herself says before death, many stories color her life. Despite the loss, Abby’s death also allows the family to move on. Red eventually decides to move into a small apartment, while Stem and Denny patch things up. Abby’s death operates as a major closure for the family, and it symbolizes smaller closures that are now taking place in each subplot.
The concept of storytelling takes shape in these chapters in startling ways. Stem learns that his mother was none other than B.J. Autry, the orphan whom the family always told stories about and made fun of. Stem initially can’t forgive himself for treating his birth mother terribly, despite the fact that he never really knew her. Stem was convinced that he knew B.J. Autry based on a surface-level understanding of her. Likewise, Amanda and Jeannie see a photo of a previous beach trip and recall two different accounts of the event. This scene underscores the murkiness of memory, and how each person can hear, see, or believe something different based on circumstances he or she wants to believe in.
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