SUMMARY
I am going to start this analysis with
the title because of which I chose this work
When I first saw the title it called
my attention and I thought this story would be talking about some lovers,
familiar or very good friends because if you are living with someone and
spending with him or her twenty- four hours a day you should know him or her
very well.
However after reading some chapters of this
short story I realized I had been wrong. As the one of the character says
“You think you know someone but what do you really ever know? Nothin' you can't. How can you know what goes on in another
person's head. They'll always surprise you. It's what makes life so good, I
guess. “
The first thing you see is someone standing on
the corner and looking up and down the street. This someone is a reader that
means YOU. There is no information about this person and thanks to this you can
identify yourself with an actor.
From the very
beginning we are offered by two possibilities – come in the house or leave
that place.
If you decide to come in you will
meet some Jess’ friends – Ned, Kate, Sam, Dave and Polly.
In the house you will learn about the
atmosphere your cousin live in. The people there are
drinking, smoking and arguing all the time. However it doesn’t mean they are
not friendly.
Even they don’t know you; they
invite you to join them in the party and they offered you a place to sleep.
You are not sure whether to go to
party or not, but finally you decide to go just to get some information about
your cousin.
Then you have other two
possibilities of making a story. You can go
to the rally with Polly and Ned or you can stay at the house. If you decide
to stay at the house you go to the
kitchen and to the other rooms. You talk to Sam and then you can go for walk or
have lunch.
If you go for walk you
will meet some strange people. You will see a man with the grey ashes falling
from the plastic box in his hand and other people looking at him. You will know
you shouldn’t be there.
If you had decided to
have lunch with Kate you would have gone to a cheap restaurant. Here you order
pasta, but after a while you realize you are not hungry. It is because Kate starts
to talk about Jess and the situation at house. We don’t learn much about Jess but
according Kate Jess was the smartest one of all of them and this is why she had
gone away. After having a lunch you
can go home or go for walk. You go
home where you can choose between other options- go to Polly’s room, go to visit Kate or you may go to the pool with Ned. You go to Polly’s room
where you find Polly reading cards. She wants to read your cards but you are
not sure about it. You don’t believe in cards and the explanation she gives you
seems to be quite general. After a while you go downstairs to see the others.
They are talking about
the party and they offer you two possibilities- go straight there (to the party) with Ned or go to a pub with Polly.
If you decide to go to
pub you will meet another Jess´ friend called Rick. You think he may give you
some information about your cousin, but he will not. Then you go to the party
where you find Ned pretty drunk, having fun with a girl and Polly who is kissing
Rick.
When you go back home,
you don’t know what to think. Ned is sprawled out on the couch and you ask him
about Jess. However there is no answer. You think about the morning. It'll all
still be here?
If you had chosen to go
to the pool some things would have been different. You will not enjoy it too
much because of Ned. When he sees five boys jumping from the edge he will
decide to go back to the house.
If you had chosen the option leave
in the beginning of the story you would have been offered by other options- go
to the bookshop, candle shop, café or flower shop. You go to candle shop
where you smell the incense you don’t like and after a while you leave the
shop. Then you go to the flower shop where you feel like in paradise. After
leaving this shop you go to the bookshop where you browse through different sections when you realize you are
hungry and you leave this shop.
You move to another place just to
have a coffee. The waiter comes and asks you what it will be. He seems arrogant
and confident and you don’t like him. After drinking coffee you pay and decide
to leave the place. In this moment someone
grabs your arm. It is Polly, the girl from the house. She is working in
this place. You sit down and have a latte with her.
However, in this moment something
has changes. The attitude of waiter has changed because you know one of the
staff. He is nicer and more attentive.
As Polly knows you are looking for you cousin
she starts to speak about situation and relationship in the house. Then she
invites you to go to the house…
I think that this link is one of the
most important because it is a connector between the options: come in and leave.
Until now, there were different links but from this point we accede to the same
options, I mean you are already in the house and you are offered by the same
options as when you decided to come in.