Never Never

The “nurse” brings Charlie’s food tray. Charlie, still drowsy from pills, begs her to tell her why she is here. When the nurse says nothing, Charlie throws the tray across the room. When she stoops over to pick up a sliver from the shattered plate as a potential weapon, she feels a pinch in her neck and falls.

Silas checks his phone and sees a photo of Charlie standing next to a cab on Bourbon Street. He knows from notes that they visited a tarot shop. Using markers in the photo, he locates the shop. Silas sees a framed photo of a gate outside of a house—identified as Jamais Jamais (French for “Never Never”). A clerk asks why he is back and where his girlfriend is. Confused, he asks what “Jamais Jamais” means; the clerk answers “Never Never.” Silas talks to the tarot reader, and she tells him about Charlie’s blank card. For the first time, Silas considers the idea that he and Charlie are under a spell. The tarot reader says he “must remember what it is someone so desperately wanted you to forget” (226).

When Charlie comes to, the nurse tells her that it is time to shower. She accompanies Charlie out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom. Charlie realizes she is likely in a house, not a hospital. As she struggles to turn on the water, she notices a bit of metal pipe hanging from the spigot. She detaches it to use as a weapon. As Charlie showers in cold water, she realizes she has no concrete plan.

Later, Silas finds texts from Landon. The football game is over, and Silas is wanted for questioning about Charlie’s disappearance. When he asks Landon about the house Jamais Jamais, he says it was where Charlie’s family lived before Brett was sent away. Stunned, he researches the location and corroborates what Landon said. An online article mentions how Charlie herself named the house as her way of saying “never stop trying to better the world for those who will inhabit it after you” (234). Deciding he needs to lay low, Silas opts to sleep in his car.

Charlie refuses medication, pretending to swallow her pills. Emboldened by her concealed weapon (the metal pipe from Part 2, Chapter 26), she confronts the nurse and demands to see a real doctor. The nurse tells her that she does not run the place and leaves the room, locking the door behind her.

Silas dreams about making out with Charlie. He awakens to find Landon pounding on his car window. Landon begs him to go to the police and tell them everything he knows. Silas decides to reveal his amnesia, but Landon is skeptical. Still, he uses the opportunity to get information about the fallout between their family and Charlie’s. Landon says that before the trial, forensic accountants were certain money was being laundered by either their father Clark or Brett. When Clark found evidence of off-shore accounts and showed the police, this evidence then disappeared. Clark believes Charlie, Silas’s girlfriend at the time, stole the evidence to save her father. Silas reveals he took the evidence to protect Charlie, as per his notes. Landon says Charlie avoided Silas and eventually broke up with him after her father’s arrest.

Knowing he has less than eight hours before he will lose his memory again, Silas is determined to visit Brett in prison. Finally, he asks Landon who purchased Jamais Jamais, and the owner is revealed to be Janice Delacroix, a tarot reader in New Orleans. Janice has a daughter, Cora—“The Shrimp.”

Desperate to go to the bathroom, Charlie urinates in a paper cup. The door opens and an oddly familiar girl enters. She tells Charlie that the nurse is off today. She takes Charlie to the bathroom, and Charlie pounces on the girl, pipe in hand. Charlie escapes, finds herself in a kitchen, and then takes off into the night.

Determined to check out Jamais Jamais, Silas jumps the house’s gate. As he nears the porch, he hears a dog growling. He and the dog fight, but then it falls over, a piece of metal embedded in its neck. Silas is stunned to see the girl he recognizes from his phone’s photos—Charlie. Charlie tells him that they need to escape. However, the gate is locked. Silas calls Landon and tells him to drive his car into the gate. As the trio drives away, Landon demands Silas call the police and inform them about Charlie. Instead, Silas tells Landon to drive them to a nearby hotel. There, he explains everything to Charlie—including their amnesia loop and deadline. He knows Charlie’s “nurse” is the tarot reader and her helper is Cora. Exhausted, the pair agree to set their alarms for 10:30 am. They sleep in the same bed, Charlie’s body “curving perfectly” (261) against Silas’s.

Silas brings breakfast, and he and Charlie compare all their notes as 11:00 am approaches, determined to leave enough evidence for the future. Charlie begins the countdown in her head, nestling close to Silas and appreciating his cologne. As 11:00 am hits, they kiss; Silas whispers, “Never never” (264).