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Middlesex Book 3, Chapter 9 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Flesh and Blood

  • With the Stephanides family vacation canceled (either there was a war in Greece or Chevy Chase had a scheduling conflict), Calliope is free to spend some time at the Object's vacation house in the woods with her parents, Jerome, and Jerome's friend Rex.
  • Calliope is jealous that the Object gives Rex attention.
  • The teenagers head out to a tiny cabin in the woods (not this one), where everyone couples off—the Object with Rex and Calliope with Jerome—and has sex at the same time.
  • While making out with Jerome, Calliope has an out-of-body experience in which she transfers her consciousness into Rex's body and feels what it's like to sex up the Object.
  • Pain snaps Calliope back into her own body—Jerome has penetrated her and it hurts.
  • She's afraid that he's going to know that she's not like other girls, but "He hadn't noticed a thing" (3.9.173).