The Sweet Hereafter

Nichole Burnell, who is 14, narrates this chapter. She describes waking up in the hospital room and realizing she has been partially paralyzed and suffered other injuries. She does not remember anything from the actual accident. Everyone around her, including her father, Sam, and her mother, Mary, treats her like a child, refuses to answer her questions, and tells her she is lucky, which annoys her. She learns later that she is “lucky” because so many other children died. Nichole is angry because she realizes she will have to work incredibly hard just to do what is commonplace for most people. 

Nichole comes home from the hospital. Her dad has built a ramp for her and fixed up a downstairs room as a bedroom for her, complete with various modifications to facilitate her transition home. She has her own room and bathroom, which she describes as being like an apartment. Nichole’s two brothers, Rudy and Skip, are self-conscious and don’t know what to say to her. Nichole’s younger sister, Jennie, hugs Nichole and Nichole is happy to see her. Nichole has a present in her room, a new computer, which it turns out is from the lawyer, Mitchell Stephens. Nichole’s parents have signed on with Stephens to be a part of the lawsuit. Nichole reacts negatively. She does not understand why her parents need to sue because, she thinks, they did not lose her. She is still their daughter and still has value. Nichole feels guilty for having survived. Her father, Sam, explains that there will be lots of bills beyond those covered by insurance, and that the family needs money to pay the bills. Nichole thinks the lawsuit is not right for multiple reasons. She has an argument with her parents about the lawsuit and does not want to be deposed. She insists that she does not even remember anything from the accident. 

Nichole also describes her experience of being sexually abused by her father before the accident. She says that she was afraid of being alone with him and felt very ashamed. Each time it happened, she would go to her room alone and fantasize about killing herself. In her mind, she denies that anything bad has happened and convinces herself that she was making it up. After the accident, Sam no longer tries to abuse Nichole. 

Nichole does not return to middle school with her siblings. She does not want to see all the students around her living life normally and pitying her. Her friends come to visit her but then slowly stop coming. She does not blame them. She describes herself as a “cripple.” Nichole mostly stays home alone during the day and works on school work and reads books. She feels that her father, whom she calls “Daddy,” is scared of her after the accident. Their relationship changes, and Nichole realizes the secret she has (his past abuse) gives her power over him:“I looked right at him, though. I looked right into him. I had changed since the accident, and not just in my body, and he knew it. His secret was mine now: I owned it” (180).

Nichole meets with the lawyer, Mitchell Stephens. Nichole likes him and agrees to tell the truth about the accident in a deposition. She says at first that she does not want to do it, that she just wants to move on with her life, but ultimately she agrees. Stephens is able to understand Nichole’s feelings. Before the accident, Nichole was queen of the Harvest Ball and was the head of the cheerleading squad. She went to the dance with the quarterback but then refused to kiss him. The lawsuit makes Nichole feel “greedy and dishonest” (187). Nichole also says she tends to “feel guilty for [her] emotions” (188). Nichole is salutatorian and her parents and the school want her to give a speech, but she refuses. Her parents want her to give the speech because it will reflect well on them; it has nothing to do with how Nichole herself feels. She decides only to do things she wants to do, and to do them for her own reasons. She starts going to physical therapy and begins to feel more well-adjusted to being in a wheelchair. 

Billy Ansel comes over and tries to convince Nichole’s parents to drop the lawsuit, but her parents refuse. Nichole hates her parents for refusing. Multiple lawsuits have been filed, some by firms against other firms, some against the School Board for distribution of donated items. Billy Ansel says that the lawsuits are keeping people from being able to mourn and are instead making Sam Dent a hateful place. Nichole says that everyone, including her parents, is trying to use lawsuits to make others feel pain instead of facing their own pain and dealing with it. Nichole begins to formulate a plan to destroy the lawsuit with her testimony. Nichole spends the summer with her sister Jennie, and Nichole enjoys that time and feels almost more like a child again. She describes those days as the last of her childhood. 

A few months later, Nichole attends the deposition with Stephens, her father, and the attorneys defending Sam Dent and the State of New York. Nichole answers many basic questions about herself. She describes how she can’t feel her legs and what her life was like before the accident. 

Nichole also describes her memory of the morning of the accident, and then remembers more as she is talking about it. Nichole surprises everyone by saying that she was scared because Dolores was driving too fast. Nichole lies and says that she saw the speedometer right before the accident and it said 72 miles per hour. This makes the lawyers representing Sam Dent and the State of New York very happy. 

Nichole’s father and Stephens talk about what Nichole said. Sam, who is in shock, is silent for a long time and then asks Nichole whether she wants to get ice cream. She says yes, and they stop for ice cream. They then drive past the fairgrounds and Nichole says that, yes, she might like to go to the fair. She asks whether anything bad will happen to Dolores, and her father says no, because “Dolores is one of us” (219). Nichole and her father have an honest moment in the car, and Nichole says her father will never smile again and that she has gotten what she wanted. She adds that she does indeed want to go to the fair, and her father wheels her somberly into the house.