How It All Goes Down
Touched at the Roots
- Finally, Luce's parents make an appearance. We were beginning to wonder if they were even real.
- In an act of love, or maybe a sort of truce, Luce's parents bring her a picnic basket full of all her favorite foods. They even invite Penn to sit with them, which is super nice, because Penn doesn't have any family to visit her on Parents' Day.
- To be fair, it's less of an organized event than Luce's parents probably expected—but then again, a lot of things aren't as they are expected at Sword & Cross.
- Case in point: church-nasium.
- Luce's parents are appropriately horrified by the sad, sagging buildings of the campus.
- After Luce and Penn and her parents—Harry and Doreen, for anyone keeping track at home—have a delightful picnic lunch, Luce introduces the 'rents to the other students, including Arriane and her sister Annabelle, Cam and his…father?... brother?... uncle? Whoever he is, he has aged very well, and he seems much too young to be Cam's father.
- Then Luce and her parents and Penn all sign up for Mr. Cole's tour of the cemetery, because doesn't that sound charming?
- As they're all walking through the cemetery, Luce thinks about all the things she could tell her parents about her experiences so far, like where she served her first detention, where a statue almost squashed her, and where she and Cam went on their first picnic.
- Ah, memories.
- At the end of the tour, when her parents leave, Luce secretly thanks them for loving her and treating her normally despite everything that she has put the family through.
- As she and Penn are turning to leave, Luce wanders past the cemetery again to see Daniel, sitting on top of one of the cemetery statues, looking about as alone in the world as the cheese who stands alone at the end of "The Farmer in the Dell."
- That's pretty lonely.