Summary
The next few days only make Ann even uneasier. At Mr. Loomis’s urging, she plants wheat and beets. She puts a chair for him out on the front porch and on the back porch. Ann also gives him a cane to assist him while he regains his strength. Mr. Loomis sits in the chairs like an overseer as Ann does farm work. After preparing dinner, Ann sits outside with Mr. Loomis. She feels as if she does not really know him, though she does not want to ask him about Edward. Ann asks him questions about his past. He tells her he grew up in Nyack, New York and served for four years in the navy before going to graduate school at Cornell.
Then, she asks him if he ever got married. Mr. Loomis looks at her in peculiar way, and says that he thought she was going to ask that question. He reaches over and grabs her hand, taking it very quickly and hard, and pulls it to his chair, jerking Ann towards him. He says that he never got married. Afterwards, Ann feels embarrassed, awkward, and afraid. Mr. Loomis asks her why she asked that question. She says that she was just interested. Mr. Loomis tells her she should not have done that. In the kitchen, Ann shakes so hard that at first she cannot continue cooking. Mr. Loomis walks back to the bedroom by himself, and Ann feels as if by grabbing her hand the way he did he was taking charge or possession. He was trying to control her. For that reason, though his walking back to the bed without help should be something to celebrate, it instead makes Ann uneasy.
Ann returns to living in the cave again, and she is glad that she never told Mr. Loomis about its location or existence. She takes the reader back to the night after the hand-grabbing incident, when she went to bed but was extremely nervous and could not get to sleep until about 3am. The next morning, she gets to work in the fields, but feels that Mr. Loomis is watching her. This makes Ann nervous again. In the afternoon, she fertilizes the vegetable garden. Then, as she is preparing dinner, Mr. Loomis comes in and says that he is strong enough to eat at the table. She cleans up and Mr. Loomis asks her to read for him. She ends up reading Gray’s “Elegy” again, and when she finishes he asks her to continue reading. So, Ann begins reading Pride and Prejudice to him.
Mr. Loomis then asks Ann to play the piano. Ann is very nervous while playing the piano, and says that she is too tired to continue playing. The next time, he does not ask Ann to either read or play the piano. After dinner, Ann decides to go for a walk with Faro. As she is walking back to the house, Ann sees Mr. Loomis heading purposefully to the wagon looking for something. She waits for him to go back into the house. She lights a candle, sets and winds the alarm clock, and kicks off her shoes, but decides not to undress yet. The next thing she knows, she wakes up in pitch darkness. Faro is growling, and she feels Mr. Loomis’ presence in the room. She hears his breathing, and pretends to not know that he is in the room. He creeps forward and suddenly both of his hands are over her. One hand brushes her face, and then comes down hard on her shoulder to pin her to the bed. Ann whirls to one side, springs for the floor, and makes a dive for the door. She trips over his leg, and he grabs her ankle. She hits Mr. Loomis in the throat, and his loud breathing stops momentarily. In a burst, Ann runs out the door.
After leaving the house, she runs down the road toward the store and the church. She reaches the store and sits for an hour or so trying to catch her breath and stop shaking. The store is dark, but Ann feels her way around and gets a candle lit. In the clothing section of the store, she picks out sneakers, shirts, and other clothing. She walks on to the cave. She sits there for the rest of the night, watching. In the early morning, Ann watches the house with her binoculars. Faro begins following her, and within ten seconds Mr. Loomis appears. He walks to the edge of the road and stares at the dog. Ann knows that Faro will track her to the store, from the store to the pond, and then the pond to the cave. But Mr. Loomis cannot see that from the house. Sure enough, Faro shows up a few minutes later to the cave. Faro goes back to the house where Mr. Loomis feeds him. He then proceeds to tie Faro to the porch.
Ann realizes that Mr. Loomis will have to cook for himself. She decides that somehow they will need to work out a compromise, a way that they can both live in the valley even though not as friends. She is not sure Mr. Loomis would be willing to compromise. But she still decides to try. Mr. Loomis plans to use Faro to catch Ann. He unties his leash the next morning after feeding him and leads him out to the road. They only go a few yards up the road and turn back to the house. Ann takes stock of what she has in the cave: notably food, a paper bag, a sleeping bag, a pillow, two blankets, and two guns with a box of shells for each. Ann makes a wall of some kind near the cave, not very big, but enough to hide the glow of a small fire from the direction of the house. After dinner the next day, she collects gallons of water from the brook and washes up as well. She takes her sleeping bag and blanket up to the shelf where she had been building the fire, and realizes that sleeping in the cave will leave her vulnerable because there is only one entrance.
When she wakes up, she washes, eats, takes her bedding back to the cave, and sets out for the house, taking the long route so that her position will not be compromised. She comes up to the front yard, stops, and waits. Mr. Loomis opens up a door less than a minute after that. Ann is shocked that he is sorry and wants to be friends again. Ann states that she does not intend on coming back. Ann says that she will do the work around the house – crops, seeds, animals, and the garden – if she is left alone. She also says that she will bring food and water as Mr. Loomis needs them. He tries to convince her to move back in, and when she declines, he calls her behavior schoolgirl-like. Mr. Loomis goes back into the house, and Ann goes to the barn to milk the cow. That morning, she does her morning outdoor work as usual, and Mr. Loomis leaves her alone. At noon, she goes to the store to get him groceries. Later in the afternoon, she quits and walks back to the store, and replenishes her own food supply. Later that evening, Ann watches as Mr. Loomis attempts to use Faro to track her. He also takes the tractor out for a ride.
Analysis
At this point, Mr. Loomis’ antagonism becomes increasingly hostile and dangerous, from forcefully grabbing Ann’s hand to finally attempting to rape her. Their relationship quickly deteriorates, and Ann becomes increasingly convinced that the current setup – in which both of them are occupying Ann’s home – is not going to work. This is one reason she decides not to return to her home.
Ann also wishes that Mr. Loomis had never come to the valley at all. Her regrets and stark change in opinion about Mr. Loomis points to the larger constellation of relationships between human beings – particularly as they have served as the basis of the war that has resulted in Ann’s current reality. In some sense, it also points to a larger human ingratitude as well. This is significant in the context of Ann’s trips to the church, her reading of the Bible, and her intense prayers to God asking for Mr. Loomis’ improved health.
It is unclear whether O’Brien intended for such a connection to arise in his story, because there is no explicit reference to ingratitude, but Ann’s feelings about Mr. Loomis’ presence in the valley significantly bring out the uncertainty and conflict that defines her world. At the same time, her feelings also show how her character develops over time. Though she is not necessarily naïve at the beginning of the story, she certainly becomes more aware of the realities of the world. She never had the opportunity to experience the harsh realities that other people bring to bear upon one’s sense of self-esteem, self-respect, and security.
In contrast to the hope she expresses for much of the story, Ann becomes quite jaded about the possibility of living peacefully with another human being. Her expectations about other people and about realizing some of her hopes (e.g., getting married) are shattered. But on the other hand, she does think that there is a chance Mr. Loomis would be willing to compromise.
Finally, we see Ann the caretaker become Ann the bricoleur. Her resourcefulness and creativity become very pronounced when she leaves her home after Mr. Loomis attempts to rape her. She has prepared ahead of time, as the cave is already filled with food and resources. Ann’s ability to make use of what is at hand and adapt to new circumstances is one of the main reasons she is so resilient. Her knowledge and skill-set help her cope with new challenges, which is why we see that in some respects Ann’s development as a character is not as drastic as one would expect in a situation where a teenage girl is confronted by a rapist.
