The Hazel Wood

Alice and Finch go to a friend of Finch’s, David, whose parents have gone to France to deal with a daughter in trouble at boarding school. Alice and Finch excuse themselves after chatting with David, who is high on marijuana, and retire to the daughter’s room. Alice sleeps on the bed, and Finch finds a sleeping bag in the closet. Alice tells Finch that another man might be following them and shares the kidnapping story from her youth. Finch tells Alice how no one knew how to treat him after his mother killed herself and that his only consolation was Althea’s stories: “There’s just this harsh, horrible world touched with beautiful magic, where shitty things happen. And they don’t happen for a reason, or in threes, or in a way that looks like justice” (111). He goes on to describe Althea’s writer’s voice as “pitiless” and compares her to a war reporter, suggesting she was writing about figures she saw in reality. Then Finch wonders aloud if maybe Alice is the one the Hinterland really wants. Alice initially disputes this idea, then suggests it doesn’t matter: “They want to get me to do something? They found the right way to do it.