Hush, Hush: Chapter 18
ZeldaQueen: In this chapter, ladies and gentlemen, we see that it's a very good thing that Nora isn't in an actual slasher movie. She wouldn't survive past the opening credits.
Also, a very happy birthday to emmram and winki_pop!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 18
ZeldaQueen: Nora and Patch continue on their creepy-ass date as Patch drives her over to "alongside the historic Topsham paper mill sitting on the bank of the Androscoggin River. At one point, the mill had been used to turn tree pulp into paper. Now a big sign across the side of the building read SEADOG BREWING CO. The river was wide and choppy, with mature trees shooting up on both sides". It's also getting late and dark and it's raining very hard.
You know, I must ask why it's so freaking dysmal all of the time. Yes, I know it's New England and I do know that the weather there is cold and rainy (I've spent many a night in a tent in Maine during those nights). But in general everything just feels like a Tim Burton movie set, but without any quirky charm. It's not even like there's anything fun going on half the time, which would potentially make it possible to look beyond how freaking gloomy things always are. Take this date, for example. They go to a dangerous, filthy bar where Patch's drunk, slovenly friend is a sleaze towards Nora (while still managing to be less creepy than Patch) and Patch makes vaguely sexual talk about how Nora will owe him a favor (which is much more frightening if you know what's coming). Now they're by an abandoned paper mill and a brewery in a storm, while a river and some trees are all dark and omnious. What the heck? Is Nora secretly a nightmare fetishest or something?
Anyway, they park and Nora starts to frett because it's getting late and she has to beat her mother home. We get another reminder of how she didn't tell her mother about this delightful little excursion and how she didn't want to tell about Patch because "the honest truth was, Patch wasn't the kind of guy mothers smiled on. He was the kind of guy they changed the house locks for". *rubs head* And you still want to date him? Dude, there's the guy your parents don't like because he's kind of annoying or has opposing political views or serves detention for making rude jokes in class, and there's the guy your parents don't like because he's likely to shank you if you displease him. Really, this all reminds me of the joke about the girl who dates an obviously dangerous guy and, when her parents protest, insist that he must have some good qualities because he's assigned to do so much community service.
Of course, Nora doesn't do anything like, say, use her cell phone to leave a message home saying that she's out with a friend. She certainly doesn't consider just asking Patch to take her home early, probably because she knows he's a dick who never listens to her (which, if that's true, begs the question of why she's attracted to him and why she went off with him alone, where he could easily control her transportation home).
Patch, while all this fretting is going on, gets out of the car to get food. I can only assume that the brewery sells food, because I'm fairly certain the abandoned paper mill doesn't and those are honestly the only two buildings that have been mentioned in the area. Nora asks for a turkey sandwich with no pickles or mayonaise. For some unspecified reason, this gets Patch to start smirking. This is treated like some sweet moment, even though even Nora admits she has no idea why the fuck he's reacting like that.
As soon as Patch is gone, Nora takes it into her head to start rummaging through his things. No, I'm serious
"I unbuckled my seat belt and rummaged through the stack of textbooks near my feet, feeling a mysterious smile creep to my mouth at the thought of uncovering one of Patch's secrets. I wasn't expecting to find anything in particular; I would have settled for the combination to his locker or his cell phone number"
ZeldaQueen: To quote the Nostalgia Critic, well you got creepy all of a sudden! Maybe this Nora/Patch pairing has more potential than I thought. He's a creepy, controlling douchewad and she's got the makings of the psycho girlfriend who breaks into her boyfriend's e-mail account and cell phone to monitor who all he's been communicating with.
And I do so love how there's no reason given besides her curiousity. She's not trying to figure out if Patch really did attack Vee. She's not trying to see if there's any evidence that he attacked Marcy Millar. She's not trying to figure out if he has pictures of her sleeping or something. Nope, she just thinks it would be fun and interesting to see what Patch is hiding in his glove box, so she merrily starts pawing through. I love how focused our heroine is throughout this story.
We don't get very much interesting stuff at first. Just the usual junk in cars - receipts, odds and ends, an overly symbolik Highway to Hell CD, that sort of stuff. Then, Nora pops open the glove box and out rolls a flashlight. She immediately notices how light it is because it has no batteries in it, and wonders why Patch could possibly be carrying a battery-less flashlight. Why indeed? Couldn't be that it ran out of battery juice as he was going along and he pitched out the old batteries before getting new ones. Or that he found it on the side of the road as it was and figured it was a waste of a perfectly good flashlight. Or that he was bringing it as a prop for something. I don't know, is it that odd?
Anyway, while Nora is pondering all of this, she notices a dried "rusty liquid" on the flashlight. She immediately goes all cold and scared, figuring that it's blood and that Patch brained Marcy Millar with the flashlight.
Nora throws the flashlight back where it was and immediately starts panicking. In my opinion, she ought to have started long before now, but better late than never I guess. She knows that the flashlight isn't great proof, but decides that the hypothetical scenario is too dangerous to take chances with and "Patch had a frightening past and many, many secrets.If brutal and senseless violence was one of them, I wasn't safe riding around alone with him".
Yeah, she's just figuring this out now. After he cornered her in the ladies' bathroom. After he chased her and frightened her in the parking lot. After Vee insists that he attacked her. This right here, while Nora is in the middle of nowhere, with Patch as pretty much her only way of getting home (because even if she tried to walk or call for help, he could still catch her and hurt her in the meantime), is when she wakes up to the idea that it's not safe to be around him.
I facepalmed here. I bet a lot of you guys did as well.
Patch comes back at this point. He gets in the Jeep and hands Nora her meal, before wringing rain out of his clothes. Now, with Nora suspecting what she does, she surely is going to act like nothing has gone on, won't she? She'll just smile and let him drive her home and tell the police when she gets back. Won't she? Won't she???
"'Did you attack Marcie Millar?' I asked quietly. 'I want the truth now.'
Patch lowered his 7UP from his mouth. His eyes sliced into mine. 'What?'
'The flashlight in your glove compartment. Explain it.'
'You went through my glove compartment?' He didn't sound annoyed, but he didn't sound pleased, either.
'The flashlight has dried blood on it. The police came to my house earlier. They think I'm involved. Marcie was attacked Wednesday night, right after I told you how much I can't stand her.'
Patch gave a curt laugh, minus the humor. 'You think I used the flashlight to beat up Marcie.'"
ZeldaQueen: Okay, list time!
First, the obvious point. Of all the things she could have done, of all the options she had, she chose to confront Patch about potentially assaulting a girl while she was alone with him in a car in the middle of nowhere. I'm serious, that is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life. There's no one else around, there's no way she could protect herself, the only place she could possibly escape to is the brewery, and it's established that Patch is much faster and stronger than her so it's not like she could outrun him to get there. In short, there is absolutely no way she could confront Patch and live to tell the tale, if he is the sort to violently attack someone (as she suspects he is), and that is the point she decides is best to confront him about it.
WHAT. A. DUMBASS.
Second, I do so love how she is still laboring under the delusion that he won't lie to her. Nora, dearest, when has Patch ever done anything to suggest that he wouldn't just lie to you? Saying "Go on, tell the truth!" won't get someone like him to own up if he doesn't want to. It's believable that Superman wouldn't lie, because he's an all-around nice, honest guy. Patch has shown no signs of respecting Nora's wishes, being honest to her, or telling her anything unless he wants to.
Third, I do so love how Patch finds it amusing that someone would dare suspect him of attacking Marcy. Why, the idea is just absurd! He certainly has never exhibited behavior that would suggest that he would do such a thing! Not now, not ever, and not in a few chapters for sure!
*rubs forehead* Right. Moving on.
Patch decides to set Nora straight and does so by pulling a large gun out from behind his seat. Nora screams, which I don't think is at all unjustified. She thinks this guy attacked someone and instead of actually reassuring her, he has smirked, gotten pissed, and then pulled out a gun. Any san person would come to the conclusion that Nora was right and he intends to kill or at least threaten her!
Instead, Patch claps his hand over Nora's mouth and tells her that it's a paintball gun, "His tone had chilled". While still keeping his hand over Nora's mouth as she looks around all terrified, he reminds her that he played paintball before, adding "I thought we went over this". Nora asks where the blood factors in, and...well, see for yourself
"'Not blood,' he said, 'paint. We were playing Capture the Flag.'
My eyes shifted back to the glove compartment storing the flashlight. The flashlight was ... the flag. A mix of relief, idiocy, and guilt at accusing Patch swam through me. 'Oh,' I said lamely. 'I'm-sorry.' But it seemed a little too late for sorry.
Patch stared straight ahead through the windshield, his breathing deep. I wondered if he was using the silence to let go of a little steam. I had just accused him of assault, after all. I felt terrible about it, but my mind was too rattled to come up with the right apology"
ZeldaQueen: *pinches nose* Sorry, but I was saving that all up for a rant. Hope you guys don't mind.
Alrighty, we just established that Nora's assumption about Patch braining Marcy are pretty warranted, given that Fitzpatrick and Patch himself do all in their power to play him up as That Type of Guy. He threatens Nora. He stalks her. He scares her. He treats everyone like shit. Nora even thinks at one point that he would attack Elliot. In short, the book as done all in its power to say that yes, Patch is a violent person who would attack a helpless being for no reason
Now, idiocy of Nora aside, let us look at how Nora's reaction is treated. First of all, let us look at how Patch treats the whole thing. As I noted, he is generally not doing anything to prove himself safe or stable. There are many things he could have done to reassure Nora that he did not attack Marcy. He could have reminded her in a nice, non-douchy way that he played paintball and that the flashlight was the flag in their game. He could have spoken in a reassuring way. He could have used a calmer demeanor.
Instead, let's look at what he does do. He gets pissed off. He is impatient. He treats her like an idiot, even though he only told her once about the paintball (in a way that could have been interpreted as a joke) and didn't tell her at all it was Capture the Flag. And the biggest thing, he drags out the gun. He does not warn Nora about what he's doing. He does not explain the paintball before dragging it out. No, he just pulls out a gun and waves it around while Nora is clearly frightened of him.
And when she panics, what does he do? Does he calm her down and quickly assure her it's not real? Does he do something to show her it's a fake, like let her touch it? No. He claps his hand over her mouth and keeps it there, in a way that is certainly dominating and threatening and pretty much just freaks her out more. Not to mention that it continues to make him look like an asshole of the highest order, given how you can actually hear him rolling his eyes in that dialogue. "Oh, what a stupid girl, panicking at the sight of a gun. I tell you, can't she keep track of every little thing I tell her?"
Last of all, let's look at how Nora finishes this up. First of all, she just accepts that. She doesn't ask him why he was so defensive and threatening to her if it was innocent, or think anything about his behavior towards her. Nope, her thoughts go straight to "How dare I accuse Patch of something like that? I'm a horrible person!" Now, don't get me wrong. I can understand feeling guilty about jumping to conclusions and blaming someone for committing assault. But here's the kicker. As I said, Patch has done everything in his power to be a Bad Boy, from his general demeanor to his treatment of Nora. He sits there and huffs and glares at her in stony silence while she mentally berates herself for thinking so badly of him but he has done all he can to have her perceive him that way!!! God almighty, Patch, if you treat people the way you do, don't get pissed when people are suspicious of you!
I might also add that the scene in general at the end is just horrifically creepy. Please, just try to tell me it doesn't feel like Nora is scared that if she doesn't apologize properly, Patch is going to hit her for displeasing him. Try it.
Finally, I'd like to state that Nora or Patch, or Fitzpatrick is an idiot, and I'm not sure which. I'm tempted to say that Nora is an idiot for not being able to tell dried paint from dried blood, because dude, blood turns from red to brown to black after enough exposure to oxygen and red paint just stays red. If the dried stuff on the flashlight does look like dried blood, Patch is an idiot for trying to pass it off as dried paint and expecting it to work (which I guess would also make Nora an idiot for believing it). And I guess Fitzpatrick is an idiot all around just because she failed to realize this at all.
So Patch is all quiet and pissy and Nora is all quiet and terrified and I am all pissed and wondering why anyone would think this is grounds for a healthy relationship. Patch brings up that Marcy Millar must have a lot of enemies and Nora makes a joke about how she and Vee are on the top of the list. This pretty much is Nora's attempt to calm Patch and get him back in a good humor. It reminds me of when I was a child and one of my parents was riding me home while angry for something or another. Yeah, Patch and Nora remind me of an angry parent with a child. True love - these two don't got it.
Patch finally comments that they have to work on Nora's pool game and this prompts Nora to ask when he intends to call in that unspecified thing he won from her. He says it'll be later, and there's the definite implication that Nora expects it to be along the lines of a kiss. Ohhhhhh honey...it ain't. It really ain't.
The conversation then randomly jumps as Patch hands Nora a to-go bag with a present for her in it. Patch refuses to tell her why he got her something. If this were any other couple, I would think that a guy getting a girl a present would be a sign of affection, especially if they're just getting into a relationship and he wants to give her something as a token of his love or some such thing. Given the overly abusive vibes this couple's been giving off, it feels like Patch is giving Nora gifts to convince her that he does love her after all baby, he didn't mean it when he chased her and scared her and hurt her!
... I feel so icky now.
Nora opens the bag and finds a snowglobe. Inside of the snowglobe is a miniature replica of the nearby amusement park. Ah yes, Nora and Patch have such good memories associated with that place, haven't they? You know, like the time Patch stalked Nora there and frightened her and outright told her to lie to her friends and leave them, before having her ride a roller coaster that he knew she hated? And how she hallucinated falling to her death on said roller coaster and he mocked her afterwards? And how he fucked with her cell phone so she couldn't contact her friends and get a ride home with them, forcing her to get a ride with him? And how he forced his way into her house after that and scared her by using increasingly large knives to make tacos?
Yeah, nix that. Patch is a complete dick.
Nora ignores all of the above, along with the fact that Patch probably picked up the snowglobe in the amusement park gift shop for five bucks. And yes, I know that gifts aren't always rare or expensive, and if there were good memories associated with the park, or if Patch genuinely wanted to do something nice for Nora and that was all he could get for her as a gift. But there is nothing there. There's no good memories, no feelings of genuine love, no affection, no apology for how he's been treating her, no desire to make her happy, nothing. In fact, given all the things that happened to Nora at that amusement park, it really feels like Patch just chose that gift specifically to further screw with Nora.
And to prove my point, Patch points out where the Archangel is in the snowglobe. You know, that one ride Nora thought she was going to die on, out of all the things there. Nora is not the least bit upset by this, mainly because her brain is mostly dead and she has begun to romanticize that incident. Instead, she asks Patch what really happened. He refuses to tell her and she asks if he'd have to kill her if she knew. Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to find out what happened. It is vile.
Patch halts this conversation by pointing out that they have company and Nora looks up to see her mom in the doorway - wait, they're at Nora's house?! When did that happen? *scans back* Huh, we had one very brief mention of Patch pulling up to her house. I honestly thought they were still at the paper mill. That...was one heck of a fast ride home, I must say.
Mrs. Grey comes marching outside and Nora freaks out, ordering Patch not to say a thing. Her mom is clearly pissed under the friendly face she's putting on. Nora laments how her mother didn't go out for smoothies with her friends after yoga, and again I must wonder how we're supposed to take Mrs. Grey's "Oh, I miss my daughter so much!" talk seriously when she goes out of the house all of the time. *rubs head* Anyway, Mrs. Grey turns to Patch and introduces herself. Nora, meanwhile, is going through the "comical" embarassed-girl-with-new-boyfriend routine. That really is about as funny as Meyer's attempts at comedy.
Of course Mrs. Grey brings up Patch's alleged swimming hobby and Patch plays along, albeit while giving Nora looks and trying not to laugh. He says he does a lot of swimming in rivers and lakes, and a big deal is made over him twitching noticably when Nora's mom points out that it must be very cold. Nora herself makes a big deal out of WHATEVER COULD BE SO ODD ABOUT THAT QUESTION because dude, Maine is freaking freezing, even in the summer months. You know this is all SUBTLE FORESHADOWING, because any sane person would chalk up his river and lake swimming to being yet another lie to back up his bad boy persona.
Nora's mom starts questioning him about his job and how he got his Jeep. For some reason, Nora only just now notices that Patch doesn't say much about himself. I fail to see how that's some revelation, given that he doesn't tell anyone anything about himself. Of course, this all serves as a springboard for Nora to go on to the readers about how she is so desperate to learn Patch's secrets because she is now obsessed with knowing him better and has Inexplicable Feelings for him. Funny, I have feelings for Patch myself, ones which lead me to fantasize about removing his balls with pruning shears. And yes, dear readers, Nora has apparently forgotten that once upon a time she was trying to uncover Patch's secrets because she thought he was a dangerous psycopath. Which he is, but everyone including the Suethor is trying to ignore or downplay.
Mrs. Grey, meanwhile, is busy grilling Patch about his GPA. Nora starts going all "Moooom, you're embarassing meeee!!!" and while normally I'd agree that asking questions like that of a guy you just met is a bit much, Nora has all but brought home Tony from I Was a Teenage Werewolf and we're expected to think that it's "uncool" of her mother to be bothered. (Incidentally, I'd hazard a guess that Patch is worse than Tony. Tony at least got the hint and went for anger management therapy after he shoved his girlfriend. Patch enjoys pushing Nora around).
Nora continues to try to get Patch to leave and in the process, she lets it slip that Patch also plays pool at Bo's Arcade. Nora's mother recalls that there was a shootout there a few years back. Yes, Patch took his girlfriend on a date to a place where there was a shootout. Are we suprised? No we are not. And no, Nora still does not take a hint, because she tells the readers that she had intended to lie to her mother, if confronted, and say that there was no violent history at Bo's at all.
Patch finally decides to shove off, but just before leaving, Mrs. Grey asks what he and Nora did that night. He tells her that they just grabbed sandwiches and soda. "Purely harmless night" he says, leaving out the bit with the pool. As he leaves, Nora randomly says "The trouble was, my feelings for Patch weren't harmless". Yeah, her desire to passionately kiss him is so dangerous. Fitzpatrick, you need to get out more. Unless the implication is that Nora's desire to be with Patch is dangerous to her, in which case I'd wholeheartedly agree and call Nora an idiot for going along with it anyway
Onward to: Chapter 19
Back to: Chapter 17
Return to to: Table of Contents
Also, a very happy birthday to emmram and winki_pop!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 18
ZeldaQueen: Nora and Patch continue on their creepy-ass date as Patch drives her over to "alongside the historic Topsham paper mill sitting on the bank of the Androscoggin River. At one point, the mill had been used to turn tree pulp into paper. Now a big sign across the side of the building read SEADOG BREWING CO. The river was wide and choppy, with mature trees shooting up on both sides". It's also getting late and dark and it's raining very hard.
You know, I must ask why it's so freaking dysmal all of the time. Yes, I know it's New England and I do know that the weather there is cold and rainy (I've spent many a night in a tent in Maine during those nights). But in general everything just feels like a Tim Burton movie set, but without any quirky charm. It's not even like there's anything fun going on half the time, which would potentially make it possible to look beyond how freaking gloomy things always are. Take this date, for example. They go to a dangerous, filthy bar where Patch's drunk, slovenly friend is a sleaze towards Nora (while still managing to be less creepy than Patch) and Patch makes vaguely sexual talk about how Nora will owe him a favor (which is much more frightening if you know what's coming). Now they're by an abandoned paper mill and a brewery in a storm, while a river and some trees are all dark and omnious. What the heck? Is Nora secretly a nightmare fetishest or something?
Anyway, they park and Nora starts to frett because it's getting late and she has to beat her mother home. We get another reminder of how she didn't tell her mother about this delightful little excursion and how she didn't want to tell about Patch because "the honest truth was, Patch wasn't the kind of guy mothers smiled on. He was the kind of guy they changed the house locks for". *rubs head* And you still want to date him? Dude, there's the guy your parents don't like because he's kind of annoying or has opposing political views or serves detention for making rude jokes in class, and there's the guy your parents don't like because he's likely to shank you if you displease him. Really, this all reminds me of the joke about the girl who dates an obviously dangerous guy and, when her parents protest, insist that he must have some good qualities because he's assigned to do so much community service.
Of course, Nora doesn't do anything like, say, use her cell phone to leave a message home saying that she's out with a friend. She certainly doesn't consider just asking Patch to take her home early, probably because she knows he's a dick who never listens to her (which, if that's true, begs the question of why she's attracted to him and why she went off with him alone, where he could easily control her transportation home).
Patch, while all this fretting is going on, gets out of the car to get food. I can only assume that the brewery sells food, because I'm fairly certain the abandoned paper mill doesn't and those are honestly the only two buildings that have been mentioned in the area. Nora asks for a turkey sandwich with no pickles or mayonaise. For some unspecified reason, this gets Patch to start smirking. This is treated like some sweet moment, even though even Nora admits she has no idea why the fuck he's reacting like that.
As soon as Patch is gone, Nora takes it into her head to start rummaging through his things. No, I'm serious
"I unbuckled my seat belt and rummaged through the stack of textbooks near my feet, feeling a mysterious smile creep to my mouth at the thought of uncovering one of Patch's secrets. I wasn't expecting to find anything in particular; I would have settled for the combination to his locker or his cell phone number"
ZeldaQueen: To quote the Nostalgia Critic, well you got creepy all of a sudden! Maybe this Nora/Patch pairing has more potential than I thought. He's a creepy, controlling douchewad and she's got the makings of the psycho girlfriend who breaks into her boyfriend's e-mail account and cell phone to monitor who all he's been communicating with.
And I do so love how there's no reason given besides her curiousity. She's not trying to figure out if Patch really did attack Vee. She's not trying to see if there's any evidence that he attacked Marcy Millar. She's not trying to figure out if he has pictures of her sleeping or something. Nope, she just thinks it would be fun and interesting to see what Patch is hiding in his glove box, so she merrily starts pawing through. I love how focused our heroine is throughout this story.
We don't get very much interesting stuff at first. Just the usual junk in cars - receipts, odds and ends, an overly symbolik Highway to Hell CD, that sort of stuff. Then, Nora pops open the glove box and out rolls a flashlight. She immediately notices how light it is because it has no batteries in it, and wonders why Patch could possibly be carrying a battery-less flashlight. Why indeed? Couldn't be that it ran out of battery juice as he was going along and he pitched out the old batteries before getting new ones. Or that he found it on the side of the road as it was and figured it was a waste of a perfectly good flashlight. Or that he was bringing it as a prop for something. I don't know, is it that odd?
Anyway, while Nora is pondering all of this, she notices a dried "rusty liquid" on the flashlight. She immediately goes all cold and scared, figuring that it's blood and that Patch brained Marcy Millar with the flashlight.
Nora throws the flashlight back where it was and immediately starts panicking. In my opinion, she ought to have started long before now, but better late than never I guess. She knows that the flashlight isn't great proof, but decides that the hypothetical scenario is too dangerous to take chances with and "Patch had a frightening past and many, many secrets.If brutal and senseless violence was one of them, I wasn't safe riding around alone with him".
Yeah, she's just figuring this out now. After he cornered her in the ladies' bathroom. After he chased her and frightened her in the parking lot. After Vee insists that he attacked her. This right here, while Nora is in the middle of nowhere, with Patch as pretty much her only way of getting home (because even if she tried to walk or call for help, he could still catch her and hurt her in the meantime), is when she wakes up to the idea that it's not safe to be around him.
I facepalmed here. I bet a lot of you guys did as well.
Patch comes back at this point. He gets in the Jeep and hands Nora her meal, before wringing rain out of his clothes. Now, with Nora suspecting what she does, she surely is going to act like nothing has gone on, won't she? She'll just smile and let him drive her home and tell the police when she gets back. Won't she? Won't she???
"'Did you attack Marcie Millar?' I asked quietly. 'I want the truth now.'
Patch lowered his 7UP from his mouth. His eyes sliced into mine. 'What?'
'The flashlight in your glove compartment. Explain it.'
'You went through my glove compartment?' He didn't sound annoyed, but he didn't sound pleased, either.
'The flashlight has dried blood on it. The police came to my house earlier. They think I'm involved. Marcie was attacked Wednesday night, right after I told you how much I can't stand her.'
Patch gave a curt laugh, minus the humor. 'You think I used the flashlight to beat up Marcie.'"
ZeldaQueen: Okay, list time!
First, the obvious point. Of all the things she could have done, of all the options she had, she chose to confront Patch about potentially assaulting a girl while she was alone with him in a car in the middle of nowhere. I'm serious, that is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life. There's no one else around, there's no way she could protect herself, the only place she could possibly escape to is the brewery, and it's established that Patch is much faster and stronger than her so it's not like she could outrun him to get there. In short, there is absolutely no way she could confront Patch and live to tell the tale, if he is the sort to violently attack someone (as she suspects he is), and that is the point she decides is best to confront him about it.
WHAT. A. DUMBASS.
Second, I do so love how she is still laboring under the delusion that he won't lie to her. Nora, dearest, when has Patch ever done anything to suggest that he wouldn't just lie to you? Saying "Go on, tell the truth!" won't get someone like him to own up if he doesn't want to. It's believable that Superman wouldn't lie, because he's an all-around nice, honest guy. Patch has shown no signs of respecting Nora's wishes, being honest to her, or telling her anything unless he wants to.
Third, I do so love how Patch finds it amusing that someone would dare suspect him of attacking Marcy. Why, the idea is just absurd! He certainly has never exhibited behavior that would suggest that he would do such a thing! Not now, not ever, and not in a few chapters for sure!
*rubs forehead* Right. Moving on.
Patch decides to set Nora straight and does so by pulling a large gun out from behind his seat. Nora screams, which I don't think is at all unjustified. She thinks this guy attacked someone and instead of actually reassuring her, he has smirked, gotten pissed, and then pulled out a gun. Any san person would come to the conclusion that Nora was right and he intends to kill or at least threaten her!
Instead, Patch claps his hand over Nora's mouth and tells her that it's a paintball gun, "His tone had chilled". While still keeping his hand over Nora's mouth as she looks around all terrified, he reminds her that he played paintball before, adding "I thought we went over this". Nora asks where the blood factors in, and...well, see for yourself
"'Not blood,' he said, 'paint. We were playing Capture the Flag.'
My eyes shifted back to the glove compartment storing the flashlight. The flashlight was ... the flag. A mix of relief, idiocy, and guilt at accusing Patch swam through me. 'Oh,' I said lamely. 'I'm-sorry.' But it seemed a little too late for sorry.
Patch stared straight ahead through the windshield, his breathing deep. I wondered if he was using the silence to let go of a little steam. I had just accused him of assault, after all. I felt terrible about it, but my mind was too rattled to come up with the right apology"
ZeldaQueen: *pinches nose* Sorry, but I was saving that all up for a rant. Hope you guys don't mind.
Alrighty, we just established that Nora's assumption about Patch braining Marcy are pretty warranted, given that Fitzpatrick and Patch himself do all in their power to play him up as That Type of Guy. He threatens Nora. He stalks her. He scares her. He treats everyone like shit. Nora even thinks at one point that he would attack Elliot. In short, the book as done all in its power to say that yes, Patch is a violent person who would attack a helpless being for no reason
Now, idiocy of Nora aside, let us look at how Nora's reaction is treated. First of all, let us look at how Patch treats the whole thing. As I noted, he is generally not doing anything to prove himself safe or stable. There are many things he could have done to reassure Nora that he did not attack Marcy. He could have reminded her in a nice, non-douchy way that he played paintball and that the flashlight was the flag in their game. He could have spoken in a reassuring way. He could have used a calmer demeanor.
Instead, let's look at what he does do. He gets pissed off. He is impatient. He treats her like an idiot, even though he only told her once about the paintball (in a way that could have been interpreted as a joke) and didn't tell her at all it was Capture the Flag. And the biggest thing, he drags out the gun. He does not warn Nora about what he's doing. He does not explain the paintball before dragging it out. No, he just pulls out a gun and waves it around while Nora is clearly frightened of him.
And when she panics, what does he do? Does he calm her down and quickly assure her it's not real? Does he do something to show her it's a fake, like let her touch it? No. He claps his hand over her mouth and keeps it there, in a way that is certainly dominating and threatening and pretty much just freaks her out more. Not to mention that it continues to make him look like an asshole of the highest order, given how you can actually hear him rolling his eyes in that dialogue. "Oh, what a stupid girl, panicking at the sight of a gun. I tell you, can't she keep track of every little thing I tell her?"
Last of all, let's look at how Nora finishes this up. First of all, she just accepts that. She doesn't ask him why he was so defensive and threatening to her if it was innocent, or think anything about his behavior towards her. Nope, her thoughts go straight to "How dare I accuse Patch of something like that? I'm a horrible person!" Now, don't get me wrong. I can understand feeling guilty about jumping to conclusions and blaming someone for committing assault. But here's the kicker. As I said, Patch has done everything in his power to be a Bad Boy, from his general demeanor to his treatment of Nora. He sits there and huffs and glares at her in stony silence while she mentally berates herself for thinking so badly of him but he has done all he can to have her perceive him that way!!! God almighty, Patch, if you treat people the way you do, don't get pissed when people are suspicious of you!
I might also add that the scene in general at the end is just horrifically creepy. Please, just try to tell me it doesn't feel like Nora is scared that if she doesn't apologize properly, Patch is going to hit her for displeasing him. Try it.
Finally, I'd like to state that Nora or Patch, or Fitzpatrick is an idiot, and I'm not sure which. I'm tempted to say that Nora is an idiot for not being able to tell dried paint from dried blood, because dude, blood turns from red to brown to black after enough exposure to oxygen and red paint just stays red. If the dried stuff on the flashlight does look like dried blood, Patch is an idiot for trying to pass it off as dried paint and expecting it to work (which I guess would also make Nora an idiot for believing it). And I guess Fitzpatrick is an idiot all around just because she failed to realize this at all.
So Patch is all quiet and pissy and Nora is all quiet and terrified and I am all pissed and wondering why anyone would think this is grounds for a healthy relationship. Patch brings up that Marcy Millar must have a lot of enemies and Nora makes a joke about how she and Vee are on the top of the list. This pretty much is Nora's attempt to calm Patch and get him back in a good humor. It reminds me of when I was a child and one of my parents was riding me home while angry for something or another. Yeah, Patch and Nora remind me of an angry parent with a child. True love - these two don't got it.
Patch finally comments that they have to work on Nora's pool game and this prompts Nora to ask when he intends to call in that unspecified thing he won from her. He says it'll be later, and there's the definite implication that Nora expects it to be along the lines of a kiss. Ohhhhhh honey...it ain't. It really ain't.
The conversation then randomly jumps as Patch hands Nora a to-go bag with a present for her in it. Patch refuses to tell her why he got her something. If this were any other couple, I would think that a guy getting a girl a present would be a sign of affection, especially if they're just getting into a relationship and he wants to give her something as a token of his love or some such thing. Given the overly abusive vibes this couple's been giving off, it feels like Patch is giving Nora gifts to convince her that he does love her after all baby, he didn't mean it when he chased her and scared her and hurt her!
... I feel so icky now.
Nora opens the bag and finds a snowglobe. Inside of the snowglobe is a miniature replica of the nearby amusement park. Ah yes, Nora and Patch have such good memories associated with that place, haven't they? You know, like the time Patch stalked Nora there and frightened her and outright told her to lie to her friends and leave them, before having her ride a roller coaster that he knew she hated? And how she hallucinated falling to her death on said roller coaster and he mocked her afterwards? And how he fucked with her cell phone so she couldn't contact her friends and get a ride home with them, forcing her to get a ride with him? And how he forced his way into her house after that and scared her by using increasingly large knives to make tacos?
Yeah, nix that. Patch is a complete dick.
Nora ignores all of the above, along with the fact that Patch probably picked up the snowglobe in the amusement park gift shop for five bucks. And yes, I know that gifts aren't always rare or expensive, and if there were good memories associated with the park, or if Patch genuinely wanted to do something nice for Nora and that was all he could get for her as a gift. But there is nothing there. There's no good memories, no feelings of genuine love, no affection, no apology for how he's been treating her, no desire to make her happy, nothing. In fact, given all the things that happened to Nora at that amusement park, it really feels like Patch just chose that gift specifically to further screw with Nora.
And to prove my point, Patch points out where the Archangel is in the snowglobe. You know, that one ride Nora thought she was going to die on, out of all the things there. Nora is not the least bit upset by this, mainly because her brain is mostly dead and she has begun to romanticize that incident. Instead, she asks Patch what really happened. He refuses to tell her and she asks if he'd have to kill her if she knew. Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to find out what happened. It is vile.
Patch halts this conversation by pointing out that they have company and Nora looks up to see her mom in the doorway - wait, they're at Nora's house?! When did that happen? *scans back* Huh, we had one very brief mention of Patch pulling up to her house. I honestly thought they were still at the paper mill. That...was one heck of a fast ride home, I must say.
Mrs. Grey comes marching outside and Nora freaks out, ordering Patch not to say a thing. Her mom is clearly pissed under the friendly face she's putting on. Nora laments how her mother didn't go out for smoothies with her friends after yoga, and again I must wonder how we're supposed to take Mrs. Grey's "Oh, I miss my daughter so much!" talk seriously when she goes out of the house all of the time. *rubs head* Anyway, Mrs. Grey turns to Patch and introduces herself. Nora, meanwhile, is going through the "comical" embarassed-girl-with-new-boyfriend routine. That really is about as funny as Meyer's attempts at comedy.
Of course Mrs. Grey brings up Patch's alleged swimming hobby and Patch plays along, albeit while giving Nora looks and trying not to laugh. He says he does a lot of swimming in rivers and lakes, and a big deal is made over him twitching noticably when Nora's mom points out that it must be very cold. Nora herself makes a big deal out of WHATEVER COULD BE SO ODD ABOUT THAT QUESTION because dude, Maine is freaking freezing, even in the summer months. You know this is all SUBTLE FORESHADOWING, because any sane person would chalk up his river and lake swimming to being yet another lie to back up his bad boy persona.
Nora's mom starts questioning him about his job and how he got his Jeep. For some reason, Nora only just now notices that Patch doesn't say much about himself. I fail to see how that's some revelation, given that he doesn't tell anyone anything about himself. Of course, this all serves as a springboard for Nora to go on to the readers about how she is so desperate to learn Patch's secrets because she is now obsessed with knowing him better and has Inexplicable Feelings for him. Funny, I have feelings for Patch myself, ones which lead me to fantasize about removing his balls with pruning shears. And yes, dear readers, Nora has apparently forgotten that once upon a time she was trying to uncover Patch's secrets because she thought he was a dangerous psycopath. Which he is, but everyone including the Suethor is trying to ignore or downplay.
Mrs. Grey, meanwhile, is busy grilling Patch about his GPA. Nora starts going all "Moooom, you're embarassing meeee!!!" and while normally I'd agree that asking questions like that of a guy you just met is a bit much, Nora has all but brought home Tony from I Was a Teenage Werewolf and we're expected to think that it's "uncool" of her mother to be bothered. (Incidentally, I'd hazard a guess that Patch is worse than Tony. Tony at least got the hint and went for anger management therapy after he shoved his girlfriend. Patch enjoys pushing Nora around).
Nora continues to try to get Patch to leave and in the process, she lets it slip that Patch also plays pool at Bo's Arcade. Nora's mother recalls that there was a shootout there a few years back. Yes, Patch took his girlfriend on a date to a place where there was a shootout. Are we suprised? No we are not. And no, Nora still does not take a hint, because she tells the readers that she had intended to lie to her mother, if confronted, and say that there was no violent history at Bo's at all.
Patch finally decides to shove off, but just before leaving, Mrs. Grey asks what he and Nora did that night. He tells her that they just grabbed sandwiches and soda. "Purely harmless night" he says, leaving out the bit with the pool. As he leaves, Nora randomly says "The trouble was, my feelings for Patch weren't harmless". Yeah, her desire to passionately kiss him is so dangerous. Fitzpatrick, you need to get out more. Unless the implication is that Nora's desire to be with Patch is dangerous to her, in which case I'd wholeheartedly agree and call Nora an idiot for going along with it anyway
Onward to: Chapter 19
Back to: Chapter 17
Return to to: Table of Contents