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54 pages 1 hour read

One Two Three

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Chapters 13-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary: “One”

On Saturday morning, Mab and Monday bicycle to the library to investigate their new neighbors, the Templetons. Although they have no clear plan, they hope to help their mother gather evidence that she can use in her lawsuit against the Templeton family and Belsum Chemical. As they ride past the cemetery where their father is buried, the orderly section of older graves suddenly gives way to a chaotic jumble that represents the many deaths that occurred after the town’s water supply was first poisoned. When the girls arrive at the library, they observe Nathan Templeton’s expensive cars and comment on the family’s wealth. Inside, Nathan sees the girls and sends his son out to talk to them. River is wearing a top hat and carrying a magician’s wand. Although he tries to hide the wand, the girls ask about it, and he tells them that he is an amateur magician of sorts and that his stage name is “Raging River.”

Chapter 14 Summary: “Two”

The three enter the converted library so that River can show the girls his home. There, they meet Nathan Templeton. Although Monday cannot read his expression, he is outwardly happy to meet the girls, and he welcomes them with a brief tour and muffins that his wife, Apple, just purchased for breakfast. When Apple enters the kitchen, which was once the children’s section of the library, she is dusty. In a low voice, Nathan asks her whether she found anything in the attic, and she replies in the negative. As Monday beholds the sight of each section of her beloved library, which has now been converted into a different room of the Templeton’s home, she becomes overwhelmed and begins screaming. Mab guides her out of the former library building.

Chapter 15 Summary: “Three”

Back at home, Monday tries to calm herself down while Nora is baking. Nora bakes because she enjoys cooking for people and because it is a process that does not typically require her to use the town’s contaminated water. River shows up, wanting to make sure that Monday is okay. He tells the girls and their mother that the Templetons have moved to Bourne from Boston because Belsum Basics, which is Belsum Chemical’s new, post-rebrand name, has transferred Nathan to the town. The plant is reopening. Mirabel finds River utterly charming and decides that she’s in love.

Chapter 16 Summary: “One”

Mab and River are walking in the woods together. He asks her about her sisters and about the other people he has seen in Bourne. Mab explains that Mirabel was born with lesions on her brain and that many other people in town were born with congenital anomalies and intellectual and emotional disabilities. She tells River that many people became injured or ill after exposure to the chemicals produced at Belsum Chemical. She is astounded that he is so unfamiliar with his own family’s history and decides to tell him the full story of Belsum Chemical’s irreparable damage to Bourne.

She relates that although the company initially brought jobs and prosperity to the town, eventually the townspeople noticed a pervasive chemical smell. Plants died, and even the air became difficult to breathe. Then, the tap water turned brown, and people’s pets started dying. Many people, including Mab’s father, were diagnosed with cancer. Children, including Mab’s sisters, were increasingly born with congenital abnormalities. River is stunned to learn this and cannot believe that Belsum Chemical knew that the runoff from the plant was harming the local community. Although he is initially just incredulous, River soon becomes agitated; he is offended that Mab would suggest that his family is complicit in such crimes. He calls her crazy and runs off.

Chapter 17 Summary: “Two”

Nora asks Monday to find out everything she can about Belsum Basics and to see if River’s claim that Belsum plans to reopen the plant is correct. Meanwhile, Nora digs around on the internet and finds a trove of information, but all of it is misleading. The sources she finds state that Belsum, which has in the past hired scientists to lie on its behalf, now claims that the town’s water supply is entirely safe and that the town is thrilled to have the opportunity to re-open the plant. Online articles also state that Bourne is so idyllic that Duke Templeton’s son, Nathan, has relocated his family there.

Chapter 18 Summary: “Three”

Mirabel is at Norma’s Bar with her mother, doing biochemistry homework. It is Saturday night, and the bar is full of regulars. Having heard from Mab that Belsum plans to reopen the plant, Nora eagerly questions Omar, the mayor. She is sure that she must be mistaken, but Omar sadly tells her that when Belsum first contracted with Bourne, the town re-zoned the land, and Belsum gained legal access to the site of the plant for 100 years. Nora is flabbergasted, but her shock only deepens when Nathan Templeton walks into the bar, confirms that the plant will re-open, and offers everyone a job. Furious, she kicks him out.

Chapter 19 Summary: “One”

River has become an outcast at school. No one will talk to him, sit with him, or work with him in class. After ignoring him for a while, the students soon begin to pick on him. Although these acts of aggression are small at first, they eventually evolve into actual fights, and River’s face and body bear the marks of the repeated physical altercations that he has with his fellow students. One day, he passes a note to Mab, telling her that she was right about Belsum. He sits with the girls at lunch and tells them that he has been listening in on his family’s phone conversations, and he thinks that his grandfather, at least, knew that the plant was dangerous. The girls ask for further proof of this, and he agrees to continue spying for them.

Chapter 20 Summary: “Two”

When River gets beaten up by Kyle and Kyle, two students at school, the Mitchell girls intercede on his behalf. However, they are not completely sure that River is on their side, and they discuss whether or not to trust him. Although Mirabel has fallen in love with River, it seems that River might have fallen for Mab. Mab does not want him to help them because of any romantic interest he might have; instead, she wants him to help because it is the right thing to do. At any rate, they are still hoping that he can provide them with proof of Belsum’s guilt: something that will help their mother’s lawsuit.

Chapter 21 Summary: “Three”

Omar interrupts Nora and the girls at dinnertime, and Mab lets him in. He tells Nora that River has been getting beaten up at school and asks her to help the Templetons feel more welcome in town. Nora is still furious that Omar gave the company rights to use the land on which the plant sits for 100 years, and she gets even angrier when she realizes that Omar must have sold the library to Nathan as well, which proves that he has known for some time about Belsum’s intentions to reopen the plant. Omar reiterates that, at the time, he was sure that his negotiations would help the town. Although that certainty proved to be misguided, he wants to make the best of the situation now that Belsum has returned to Bourne.

Chapter 22 Summary: “One”

Mab approaches the boys who are beating River up and asks them to stop. She explains that River is going to help her find evidence against his grandfather and Belsum, but the boys are dubious. They think that River might be lying to her and that he only might only be claiming to spy on his family so that Mab will convince her classmates to stop beating him up. Mab is not sure, but she does hope that River will be able to find some evidence, so she pleads with the boys again to stop bullying River.

Chapter 23 Summary: “Two”

Mab tells her sisters that she has interceded on River’s behalf at school and adds that they need to formulate a solid plan. She thinks that they can perhaps use River to stop Belsum from re-opening the plant in Bourne. She is not sure how, but she thinks that in addition to using River to help find evidence that Belsum knew it was poisoning the townspeople, the boy might somehow be able to sabotage the new Belsum plant.

Chapter 24 Summary: “Three”

This chapter fills in some background information about the history of Nora’s lawsuit. After evidence that Belsum poisoned Bourne’s water supply began to surface, a lawyer named Russell Russo contacted Nora. Together, the two put together a lawsuit against Belsum. The company fought them at every turn, and for each piece of evidence they found, Belsum hired scientists to dispute it. Russo, however, pulled out of the fight when his own child was born with Down syndrome, and he panicked and began to doubt that Belsum was the culprit in the town’s many health issues. After that setback, Nora continued the fight mostly on her own, although Russo continued to help her with bare-bones tasks such as drafting and filing legal documents.

Chapters 13-24 Analysis

These chapters delve deeply into the theme of Corporate Greed and Environmental Justice by engaging in the beginnings of an in-depth characterization of Nathan and Apple Templeton and establishing the townspeople’s deep conviction that the family is well aware of the damage that their plant has caused. The narrative also further explores the nuances of River’s character and the beginnings of his relationship with Mab, both of which stand in sharp contrast to the nefarious nature of his family’s past actions. Within the context of the larger legal battle against Belsum Chemical, the intelligence and research acumen of the triplets is on full display, and Monday in particular emerges as a thorough investigator, foreshadowing the girls’ later forays into more proactive methods of gaining some form of justice for their community.

The dominant theme of Corporate Greed and Environmental Justice is apparent with every interaction that Nathan Templeton has with the local inhabitants of Bourne, for his communications are carefully calculated to boost Belsum’s reputation and disavow any responsibility for the health crisis that continues to plague the community. His calculated behavior is apparent in even the most inconsequential of interactions; when Mab and Monday visit the Templetons in the former library building, Nathan makes a big show of drinking water directly from the tap. Seeing this, the girls are horrified because they know that the water is simply not potable; it was poisoned by none other than Nathan’s family company. This exchange marks the beginning of Nathan’s deceitful campaign to convince the townspeople that Bourne is environmentally safe, that Belsum Chemical never poisoned it, and that they should welcome the rebranded Belsum Basics and its “new, safe” product back to town. He even offers everyone in town a job at the plant when it reopens, and thus the narrative establishes his character as a figurehead for the ongoing influence of corporate greed, for he deceives and manipulates the townspeople at every turn in hopes of once again gaining profit by exploiting them. At the beginning of the novel, his wife, Apple, also embodies this theme, as when the girls visit, she is hunting around in the attic for papers that have yet to be identified. Nora is sure that Nathan and Apple are attempting to “bury evidence” (74), and Apple’s early searches in the recesses of the library’s storage areas are designed to confirm this theory.

However, it is important to note that River is a far more complex character than his father, even though he does wrestle with the issue of accountability and does not quite manage to reassure the girls that he is completely on their side. A smart boy who prefers magic tricks to business, he is studying to become a magician, and when Mab tells him the story of his own family’s destructive presence in Bourne, he initially refuses to believe it. Having been shielded from the ugly truth of his family’s history in Bourne, he struggles to reconcile the positive image he has of his father with the version that Mab presents. However, he does eventually switch his allegiances, at least somewhat, and agrees to help the triplets find concrete evidence that Belsum knew its product was a danger. As the Templetons’ reputation in town quickly sours and he finds himself the constant target of local bullies, the author uses his character to illustrate the fact that even he, in a roundabout way, is suffering from the long-term repercussions of his family’s unethical business practices. The social difficulties that he has (although they certainly pale in comparison to the deep harm that the townspeople have suffered) serve to demonstrate that Belsum has ultimately poisoned far more than the water supply. As River embraces the idea of helping the triplets achieve some justice for the town, his character grows and develops considerably, and in these chapters, he begins to evidence that dynamism. He also emerges as a love interest, both for Mab and Mirabel. Mab is not initially drawn to him, but Mirabel is, and this triangle will be of increasing importance as the narrative progresses.

Another key element of this portion of the text can be found in Nora’s baking, which emerges as an important motif and is emblematic of both Corporate Greed and Environmental Justice and The Healing Power of Community. Nora prefers baking to cooking because baking does not typically require water, and it is thus an easier pastime than cooking would be in a town that lacks a safe water supply. Yet her baking is much more than a practical pastime; although her skill is unparalleled and she has the expertise to open a bakery, she chooses to bake for her friends and neighbors out of love and a desire to care for them. Part of her role in the community is to be a caretaker, and although she fulfills that purpose primarily through her work as a therapist, baking is a more personal way for her to communicate her dedication to her town. This spirit of community is in no way limited to Nora. Indeed, everyone does their part, and Bourne has an exceptional climate of mutual love and respect, but the numerous mentions of Nora’s baking within the narrative serve as a reminder that in Bourne, everyone cares for their fellow citizens.

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