As Bright As Heaven

Palmer has suggested a date for their wedding, while Maggie is trying to avoid admitting that “[she] might not love Palmer like he loves [her]” (319). She visits the Sutcliffs to talk to Jamie, who is back to working for his father’s accounting office. She asks Jamie why he kept her letters when he left. Jamie shares that he felt broken by what he encountered during the war and couldn’t figure out how to be the man he was before. Whenever he was driven to despair and thought about ending his life, Maggie’s letters gave him hope that he could somehow be that person again. He says that during all his roaming and his odd jobs, “waiting to see if [his] world was ever going to turn right side up again, it was [Maggie’s] letters that gave [him] the hope that one day it would” (320). Maggie’s letters, Jamie says, saved his life.

Lila finds Willa in their dressing room even though it’s not a day when Willa works. Willa is upset that Maggie is leaving and taking Alex, and she wants “to wear the bows and lace and sing like there are only good things in this world” (324).