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Twenty Pages a Day - Reading Good Books One Day at a Time
a special feature by J. at Snortyville.
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Today's Installment:
Atonement by Ian McEwan Pages 181 - 200
Go to the beginning
(Brought to you by jat impatientreader.com) Emily takes a look at Lola's arms and notes that they are bruised all the way up to the elbows. Marshall says that the boys have been through a lot, but the whole table is now in an uproar, with Leon asking if they should get a doctor, and Emily trying to get a cold compress together.
Briony suddenly picks up an envelope from Jackson's seat and holds it up. Robbie asks who it's addressed to, thinking it's the letter he wrote, and Briony says it's addressed to everyone. Emily asks for the letter and Briony brings it to her. Emily reads the letter; it is from the boys, who say they are going to run away. Marshall and Leon say they are going to go looking for them, but Lola is discouraged and runs into her room.
Leon says that he and Cecilia will go together, while Emily decides to stay home and wait for news. Robbie is discouraged that he and Cecilia cannot spend more time together that night, but he knows it won't happen, and decides to go searching for the boys by himself.
Emily stays to call the constable, and she thinks about what exactly she is going to say to him. She thinks back to her own younger sister Hermione, and how she always had the spotlight on her. She thinks Lola has done the same thing, and has undermined Briony's play just to gain attention to herself.
She also thinks about her husband Jack, and how his lying to her about working late has almost become part of a ritual of theirs that she doesn't want to know anything more about. She sits down to wait for her husband's call, and thinks about how the years of being able to take care of Briony are coming to an end, and how that will signify the beginning of the end of her real purpose in life.
She thinks about Robbie, and how Jack is paying for his education, and how Robbie might turn out in the future. Jack finally calls, and she tells him about the evening's events. He says he's going to call the police, and she's wondering if that is really necessary when Leon comes in with Cecilia, Lola, and Briony. Leon takes the phone from Emily and starts talking to his father. Emily cannot hear what Leon is saying, but knows it is serious. Leon finishes and takes Emily into the drawing room to tell her the news.
In the next chapter the book goes into an omniscient viewpoint, telling the reader how Briony is going to commit her crime. Hoping to avoid Robbie, she goes off in a different direction, now knowing where the twins are and thinking that she might find them dead. She imagines Robbie as a maniac, and wonders how she is going to protect Cecilia from him.
More to come on Twenty-Pages-a-Day!
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