Dreamland

Colby spends the afternoon by the pool with Morgan and her friends, swimming and sunning. In the late afternoon, before they part for naps, Colby invites Morgan for a picnic dinner on the beach, and she agrees.

Colby brings them salads with seafood, and they dine at the beach and take in the sunset. He asks Morgan “to do something for me tomorrow,” which she neither agrees to nor rejects outright (268). After dinner, they return to his rental and make love. When Morgan falls asleep, Colby gets up to watch the moon, thinking how the passing days are bringing him closer to a decision “that might break [his] heart” (269).

Colby joins Morgan and her friends at the Dalí Museum, then the beach. When he leaves for his set at Bobby T’s, Colby kisses Morgan and whispers that he loves her. At the bar, the crowd is large and enthusiastic, requesting his original songs. When Morgan and her friends arrive towards the end of his show, he invites her up to sing with him, and she nervously agrees. Her performance electrifies the crowd. Afterward, she is “strangely subdued” (273). When Colby praises her, she kisses him and says she thinks he is better.

After dinner and dancing, Morgan and Colby return to his rental, and she reveals that Holly and Stacy want her to post the video of her singing. She is uncertain, given the amateur filming quality, but he assures her that anyone who sees it will recognize that she has “superstar written all over” her (274, italics in original). She is embarrassed but pleased. The next morning, she is “quieter than usual,” as their “time together [is] quickly coming to an end” (274).

Since he will be working the following evening, Colby wants to make their Friday “memorable” (276). He rents a catamaran for a sunset ride, inviting Morgan and her friends. He can see building a life with Morgan, “if only [he] had the courage to make it possible” (276). Later, he and Morgan return to his rental so he can cook dinner for them. After dinner, she raises the subject of their future. He tells her that he wants to be with her, and she invites him to come to Nashville with her. She believes in his talent and that his music can bring joy to others. The life she has imagined for them captivates him, but he has not yet told her about Paige. Still, he promises to consider her offer.

Colby had not expected Morgan to invite him to Nashville and finds himself “confused and preoccupied” (283). The women plan to record their dance routines the following day, and when Colby shows up at their hotel, a huge crowd has gathered to watch them. He is impressed by their following's commitment. The women take photos with their fans and sign autographs, then prepare to record. With the beach too crowded, they decide to film on the hotel’s deck. Colby helps them record. After the session, they head to the pool area when Colby’s phone rings. It is the farm’s general manager, Toby. His aunt Angie has had a stroke. Concerned that Paige neither has phoned him nor is answering her phone, he leaves immediately for home.

Colby calls Toby from the car, asking Toby to “[w]alk [him] through it again” (288). Angie had the stroke on Tuesday, and Paige was with her at the hospital. The surgery to remove the clot went well, though “the left side of her face is partially paralyzed” (289). Toby did not call Colby because he assumed Paige would. He has not seen Paige in a few days. After they hang up, Colby checks Find My Friends and sees that Paige’s cell phone is at the house. He is not sure whether this is a good sign or bad.

Colby phones Paige, and the call goes “straight to voicemail” (291). He speeds even more than he had been.

Colby calls the hospital for an update then tries calling Paige again but fails to reach her. His anxiety increases.

Morgan phones Colby and tells him what she has learned about strokes from her parents, adding that his aunt is in good hands at the hospital she was admitted to and that Colby should not expect the doctor to phone until after his rounds. When Morgan asks what Paige said, Colby admits that he has not been able to reach her.

Colby phones Toby at the hospital and learns that Angie’s condition is stable. Toby has not seen Paige, but one of the nurses thought she had seen her earlier in the day. Colby is momentarily relieved, but “warning bells [continue] to sound” in his mind, and Paige’s phone is still going directly to voicemail (295).

The doctor phones Colby, updating him on Angie’s stroke, current condition, and future prognosis. When Colby asks about Paige, the doctor says that he has not “spoken to her recently” (297). Colby tries to phone Toby, but the call goes straight to voicemail.

Morgan phones to check up on him, and he admits that he still has not reached Paige. She asks if there's something he's not telling her, and he claims there isn't, which she doesn't seem to believe. She asks him to stay in touch, adding that she will keep her phone with her all night.

At a crossroads between going directly to the hospital or stopping at home first, Colby’s gut tells him to stop at home first, “[j]ust in case” (301).

Pulling into the driveway at speed forces Colby to slam on his breaks. The state of the house confirms his “worst fears,” and he rushes through it looking for Paige (302). Upstairs, he finds her on his bed, unresponsive, with “an empty prescription bottle on the bed beside her” and more on the floor (302). He begins screaming.

Paige’s chest is “barely moving,” and Colby is unable to find a pulse on her wrist, though he feels a weak one when he places his fingers “over her carotid artery” (304). Fearful that waiting for an ambulance will take too long, he drives her to the hospital himself. At the emergency room, an orderly quickly places her on a gurney and take her away while Colby checks her in and gives the nurse the prescription bottle. He then waits for news. He wants to be angry at Toby, but ultimately, he blames himself for going to Florida and for not checking on his sister daily. If he had been home, she “would be alive and well” (307). After a few hours, a doctor updates him that Paige is alive, but they do not yet know if she will make it.

Colby decides to stay in a hotel rather than return to “the chaos of the house” (309). After sleeping for a few hours, he returns to the hospital. His first stop is Paige’s room, where he finds her intubated and unconscious. Finding Angie awake in her room, he chats to her and she is responsive, though the left side of her face and body appear limp and paralyzed. Returning to Paige’s room, Colby tells her stories but she does not “register any awareness of [his] presence” (310).

Colby leaves the hospital to phone Morgan, updating her on his aunt’s condition but leaving out any details about Paige. She suggests visiting him, but he does not respond to the offer.

After speaking with Morgan, Colby returns to the hospital and spends the day going between the Angie and Paige’s rooms. Angie tells Colby what happened the day of her stroke and frets that she will be to be paralyzed permanently. He assures her that she will recover. Paige remains unconscious.

Before leaving the hospital for the night, Colby speaks to the doctors treating both his aunt and Paige. Angie’s prognosis is good, though she will need help at home and extensive physical therapy. Paige’s doctor is optimistic, though they do not yet know “the full extent of any possible impairments” (315).

After a 12-hour sleep, Colby returns to the hospital. Paige, now awake, has been transferred to the psychiatric ward. When he arrives at her room, she is restrained in her bed, unaware of what has happened and out of touch with the present time. She becomes increasingly agitated, talking about Gary and Tommie. Colby informs Paige’s psychiatrist about Angie’s stroke. The psychiatrist recommends Colby not visit Paige for a few days. Colby breaks the news to Angie, who shares Colby’s feelings of guilt and anguish. She tells him to take care of himself now, knowing how much he will be needed at the farm.

After checking out of the hotel, Colby returns home to find Morgan waiting on his porch. Surprised but happy, he realizes the time has come to tell her about Paige. He brings Morgan into Paige’s barn studio, where she creates Tiffany-inspired lamps and tells her about Paige’s accomplishments as a craftsperson and the financial support she provided the farm when it was in danger of going under. Morgan is confused why Colby is telling her these things, and he leads her back to the house.

Inside is chaos. As Colby walks Morgan through it, it becomes clear that the condition of the house mirrors the one in Beverly’s narratives—the yellow paint, burned food, bloody bandages, trappings of her disguise, Christian Louboutin pumps, Go Dog Go! etc. Though Colby does not understand the significance of these details, he does understand that they and her suicide attempt are consequences of her bipolar I disorder, which has included episodes of mania, depression, and psychosis.

During the latter, Paige has experienced delusions and hallucinations, which have led her to feel guilt and shame. During previous episodes, she has imagined that “she’s new in town and on the run from her husband” (329). Gary and Tommie both died in a car accident six years earlier. Paige’s first psychotic break followed shortly after their funerals. After she became stable, Colby brought her back to the farm and created the studio for her. Swallowing the pills after Angie’s stroke is not her first suicide attempt. Colby is unsure whether she willingly stopped taking her medication or forgot in the stress of their aunt’s stroke. Morgan listens carefully, asking questions and expressing compassion for both Colby and Paige. Colby explains that he did not tell Morgan because he did not want her to label his sister without knowing “the real her,” an “incredibly gifted and witty and generous sister who cooks a great meal and makes [him] laugh” (333).

Morgan suggests they clean the house, then she will cook dinner for him. The prospect of sorting through the chaos overwhelms Colby, but Morgan throws herself into the task, mobilizing and focusing him. Afterward, they go food shopping, and Morgan sends him out to the porch while she cooks. He feels “the beginnings of a melancholy ballad take shape” (337). After they eat, they sit out on the porch together and work on Colby’s song. They work together seamlessly, feeling the song come together in their give and take. That night, they make love, and the following day, Morgan asks Colby for a tour of the farm before he takes her to the airport for her flight home.

After the farm tour, they have lunch and stroll the waterfront. When Morgan asks about him coming to Nashville, he tells her that he cannot leave his family. Morgan wants them to have a long-distance relationship, but Colby is unsure since they will be living in two separate worlds moving forward. He believes that eventually, she will leave him behind, one way or another, since he cannot ignore his responsibilities to the farm and his family. Hurt and upset, Morgan disagrees, but when he asks her to “take our song and make it famous,” she accepts it (347).

At the airport, Morgan tells him she will keep in touch, despite being “furious at [him]” (350). Watching her disappear through the electronic doors, he recalls Paige saying “love and pain [are] two sides of the same coin and finally [understands] exactly what she meant” (350). As much as he loves his aunt and sister, “they [have] also become [his] prison” (350).

Morgan and Colby stay in touch, though their communications become less frequent over time as Morgan makes a meteoric rise in the music industry. Meanwhile, Angie eventually improves enough to resume running the office, and the farm remains “the center of her life” (353). Paige takes almost a week to stabilize. Eventually, she explains some of what happened to Colby. In her concern over Angie, she had rushed to the hospital without her medication and had been too anxious to leave her aunt to retrieve it, leading to the events that followed. She tells Colby that she hates being “broken,” but he insists that she is not (355). She thanks him for saving her life again, and he reminds her that she saved him too. Eventually, he tells her about Morgan and Florida. He doesn’t forget the promise he made to himself to change his life, incorporating relaxing and song writing into his weekly schedule. As he predicted, he and Morgan’s lives diverge, and he sees a media photo of her on a date with a Hollywood actor.

One day in February as Colby works on his car, an Uber pulls into his driveway, and Morgan gets out. She has decided to forgive him for trying to break up with her and declares them a couple again. They will have the long-distance relationship as she originally suggested. He asks about the actor, and she says he “was lacking that special something”—the ability to survive the zombie apocalypse (357). She will be staying a few days, and the first thing she wants to do is meet Paige.