The Lovely Bones: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

A year to the day after Susie’s death, the doorbell at the Singh house rings, and Ruana answers the door. Ruth is there, holding a sack of groceries. She asks if Ray is home, and Ruana tells her to go up the stairs to Ray’s room. Ruth and Ray were recently discovered kissing at the shot-put circle, but their classmates do not understand that the two are not a couple—they were merely conducting an experiment. After the kiss—Ruth’s first—she announced that she didn’t feel anything, and Ray admitted the same. Ruth asked Ray if he felt something when he kissed Susie, and he said that he did. Ruth offered a bargain: in the future, during their kissing sessions, Ray could pretend she was Susie if she could pretend the same.

When Ruth walks into Ray’s bedroom, he is dancing to a Jethro Tull record. He stops dancing as soon as he sees her. Ruth notices that one of her own drawings of Susie is hanging on Ray’s wall. She tells Ray that she has bought candles at the grocery store and wants to go to the cornfield and light them to commemorate a year since Susie’s death. Ray is hesitant, and Ruth offers to kiss him for a while if he wants—Ray agrees. He has begun to like Ruth and harbor feelings for her, though he has not told her. As they begin kissing, Ruth breaks away, and admits fretfully that she, too, feels something for him at last.

Ruth and Ray arrive at the cornfield. They hold hands in silence, and are surprised to find that they are not the only ones there—Hal and Samuel Heckler are there too. A bunch of yellow daffodils are on the ground, and when Ruth asks if the boys brought them, Hal says that they were already there when the two of them arrived. Several neighbors soon arrive as well, and a makeshift gathering begins.

Lindsey, at home in the living room, looks out the window and sees a stream of neighbors heading for the field. She tells Abigail that something is going on, but Abigail says she is “not interested.” For weeks, Lindsey has been trying to break through the wall her mother has put up, but it is becoming more and more frustrating.

By the time darkness falls, a large crowd has gathered for a candlelit vigil at the cornfield. Rumors of Mr. Harvey’s flight—and thus his suspected guilt—have begun to ripple through the neighborhood, but no one has asked the Salmons about what they do or do not know. The memorial, Susie realizes, is as much for her as it is for the community, who are coming together in the horrific knowledge that “a murderer had lived among them.” Susie buzzes with energy as she watches the gathering crowd, but notices that no one has knocked on her family’s door or let them know about the vigil. There is an “impenetrable barrier” around their home, still—her murder has painted the Salmons’ front door a “blood red” and marked it as unapproachable.

Inside the house, Lindsey continues urging Abigail to take part in the vigil. Abigail insists that their family has already had Susie’s memorial, and says, “That’s done for me.” Lindsey asks her what she means by “that”—Abigail explains that she doesn’t believe Susie is “waiting out there,” and that there are other, better ways of honoring Susie’s memory. Abigail confesses that she wants to be more than a mother, and Lindsey understands this—she herself wants to be “more than a girl.” Lindsey asks Abigail if she is going to leave them. Abigail hesitates, and then lies, promising Lindsey that she will not leave.

Jack’s car pulls into the driveway. Lindsey meets Jack in the mud room and asks him if he wants to go to the vigil; he does. Buckley rushes into the mudroom, and Jack wonders if it is appropriate to bring Buckley along. Lindsey tells Jack that she is sick of protecting Buckley. She explains to him that there is a party for Susie, and that the three of them are going to go. Buckley tells Lindsey that Susie comes to talk to him and spend time with him; Lindsey does not know what to say.

As Jack, Lindsey, and Buckley approach the field, Jack becomes emotional. He wants Susie to live on in the minds and hearts of everyone, but he also realizes that this vigil symbolizes everyone saying goodbye to Susie and letting her go—Susie, looking down from heaven, realizes this too. Ruth sees the Salmons approaching, and nudges Ray to go help them into the circle. Ray and Samuel welcome the Salmons into the fold together, and as Jack joins the mourners, he realizes how loved Susie had been. Together, the Salmons join their neighbors in mournful song.

Susie remembers one summer night, years ago, listening to one of their neighbors sing Irish ballads on his porch as a thunderstorm approached. Susie loved to dance in the rain, and though her mother always warned her she would “catch [her] death,” that night, Abigail watched Susie spin in the rain and remarked that she looked “invincible.” Susie turned to her and answered simply: “I am.”