The Lovely Bones

Harvey recalls spending time with his mother when he was 8, when they drove into town to get away from his father for the afternoon. They spend their days collecting scrap metal and old bottles to sell, as well as shoplifting items from stores. His mother gives him items to hide on his body, and if they got away, “the cab would fill with her wild, unpredictable love” (188) and he would feel free. One day while sleeping in their truck on the side of the road, they awake in the middle of the night to three men who look with lust at his mother. She tells Harvey to hide, then turns the vehicle on and runs over one of the men. That day, Harvey “had a moment of clarity about how life should be lived: not as a child or as a woman. They were the two worst things to be” (190).

Back in the present, Harvey watches Lindsey run away from his house and forces himself to be calm. He retrieves the charms he has kept as trophies, keeping only Susie’s Pennsylvania keystone charm and wrapping the others in a handkerchief along with his knife and hiding them under the foundation of the house.