Forget Me Not

Claire tries to think of what she should do to help Marcia. She considers doing nothing, because maybe Marcia disappeared for a good reason that she doesn’t know about. Still, the investigative part of her wants to understand why someone would hide for over 40 years.

From one of the pictures in the newspaper, she is able to see the number on the Rayburns’ house and locates the street name by the clues in Marcia’s diary. She thinks that she might contact the Rayburns, feeling a responsibility toward them, but decides she needs to keep reading the diary to understand what Marcia’s intent was. She pulls out the diary and the photo of Natalie at Galloway. The connections between Marcia and her sister seem so strong.

In January of 1984, Marcia makes her first visit to the abandoned barn in a secluded spot in the country that houses Mitchell’s commune. The barn’s run-down and littered with junk. A group of people sprawl about. Mitchell tells Marcia that this is home—and wants her to consider it her home, too. He tells her to go join “the others” (136), which unnerves her slightly since she thought they were a couple, not part of a collective.