The Lovely Bones: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

After Susie turns away from watching her parents, she moves on to watching Ray Singh, who is at home in his parents’ house, and reflects on their kiss. Susie remembers, after the morning on the scaffolding, that she avoided being alone with Ray. She was afraid of what she wanted most—his kiss. Susie remembers talking with Grandma Lynn on the phone about kissing—Grandma Lynn described one’s first kiss as “destiny knocking.” Susie revealed her crush on Ray Singh to her grandmother, and when Lynn asked what the holdup was, Susie confessed she was afraid she’d be bad at kissing. Grandma Lynn told her to “just have fun.” During the kiss itself, though, Susie felt “churned”—a combination of happy and frightened. After the kiss, Susie had wanted more, and could not wait to kiss Ray Singh again.

In the present, Ruth’s father cuts an article about the filling-in of the sinkhole out of the paper for Ruth to read. Ray arrives to pick Ruth up at her parents’ house so that the two of them can head for the sinkhole, and Ruth shoves the article in his face, complaining about the fact that the whole neighborhood will soon turn into subdivisions. Ray is charmed by Ruth’s impatience and curiosity, and notes that these traits in both of them are the reason their friendship has lasted so many years. As the two drive toward the sinkhole, they see Joe Ellis walking up ahead. Ruth reveals that her mother has told her that Joe Ellis still lives at home and cannot find a job. Ray sadly remarks that Joe “never got over” Mr. Harvey unjustly framing him for the killing of the neighborhood animals.

Susie looks down on Route 30, at a spot Ruth and Ray are about to drive past. She sees Len coming out of an apartment carrying a knapsack full of evidence—photos of the graves of the recovered bodies that have been linked to Mr. Harvey. Len is gearing up to go visit Jack in the hospital, and is thinking hard about what he is going to say. He feels guilty that all he has to give them after all these years is just one small charm.

Len arrives at the hospital and enters Jack’s room. Abigail awkwardly welcomes him. Len tells Abigail and Jack not to get their hopes up—Harvey still hasn’t been caught. He reveals that the police have found an item of Susie’s—the Pennsylvania Keystone charm. Len reveals that the charm was found near another body in Connecticut, and that while the body was not Susie’s, its recovery means that Harvey can be linked to murders in two other states. As Len retrieves that charm from inside his knapsack, Jack grows excited at the prospect of Susie’s case reopening, while Abigail becomes filled with dread. Len hands Jack the evidence bag, and Jack reaches in for the charm. Abigail asks Len how he is certain that Harvey killed the other girls. Len answers that nothing is certain. Abigail, recognizing this as a fixed phrase that “prey[s] on hope,” asks Len to leave.

As Susie turns south to catch up with Ruth and Ray, she instead runs into Mr. Harvey. He is driving a ramshackle orange car, and as he drives along, Susie can sense that the memories of his victims, kept at bay for so many years, are coming back one by one. As Harvey continues driving along, Susie can see that the spirit of the first victim of his violence is sitting beside him in the front seat.

As Ruth and Ray arrive at the sinkhole, they both remark on how nothing much has changed, though the sinkhole has definitely expanded. They look around and wonder aloud if Hal Heckler still owns the bike shop on the other side of the railroad tracks. Ruth and Ray stand at the edge of the sinkhole, and Ruth asks Ray if he ever thinks about where Susie’s body ended up. Ray says that he does not. Trying to suppress the memories of Susie rising up in his mind, Ray steps away from the sinkhole to explore the surrounding area.  Ruth, still standing at the edge of the sinkhole, feels Susie’s presence, and addresses her directly. She asks Susie if there is anything she wants, and Susie vanishes.

Susie checks in on her family. Hal, Samuel, and Buckley are at a bike show in a nearby town—the bike shop is abandoned for the day. Abigail is at the hospital with Jack, reading to him from the newspaper. Lindsey is at home alone. Mr. Harvey is driving through the neighborhood, and soon circles onto his old street. No one in the neighborhood notices his presence. As Harvey drives past his old house, one of its new inhabitants—a woman—notices his car stopped across the street from where her daughters are playing, and Harvey moves along.

Harvey passes the Salmon house, and can see Lindsey in the upstairs window. Susie sees a group of people beginning to come down the road towards Harvey’s car—it is the final vestiges of the spirits of the women, children, and animals he has killed, emerging from his house. Harvey knows he cannot outrun them, and sits still in the car. A police vehicle pulls up alongside him, and an officer asks if Harvey is lost. Harvey admits, truthfully, that he used to live in the neighborhood. The officer suggests Harvey move along, and as he does, Susie watches Lindsey—safe inside, studying. She has decided to be a therapist.

As Ruth and Ray return to their car, Ruth remains silent, vowing not to tell Ray about her brief encounter with Susie at the sinkhole until she has written it down in her journal first. Ray spots a cluster of periwinkle flowers, and goes to clip some for his mother. Ruth stands by the car and waits. Susie feels a prickling along her spine, and watches as Mr. Harvey’s car passes by the sinkhole. As the car goes by, Ruth sees all the women he has killed “stuffed in the car in blood-colored gowns.” Ruth begins walking towards them, and blacks out. That, Susie says, is the moment that she fell to Earth.