Chapter 6
Contains spoilersOverview
Kemper, reeling from seeing a man in the visiting area who looks like her supposedly dead husband Noel, begs guard Rhea to stop and listen. Rhea is skeptical and dismissive, stressing that Noel is dead and had no twin. Kemper is returned to her cell, fixated on the sighting through the night.
Summary
As Rhea escorts Kemper from the visiting area, Kemper, hoarse and in pain, insists on stopping to speak. She struggles to articulate that she believes the man she just saw visiting another inmate looked exactly like her husband, Noel.
Rhea reacts with impatience and sarcasm, reminding Kemper that Noel is the husband she was convicted of murdering. Kemper denies the murder and tries to clarify that the resemblance was striking.
Rhea points out that Noel is dead and confirms that Noel did not have an identical twin. When Kemper presses for the man’s identity, Rhea says she does not know and moves to end the conversation.
Rhea grabs Kemper’s arm and continues the escort, intent on returning her to her cell. The matter is, for Rhea, closed.
Back in her cell, Kemper cannot stop thinking about the man who looked like Noel. Even as she falls asleep on her poor mattress, with the rat she calls Pat visible in the darkness, Kemper remains fixated on the possibility that Noel is alive.
Who Appears
- Kemper
death row inmate and narrator; insists she saw a man who looks like Noel and remains obsessed with the sighting.
- Rhea
guard; dismisses Kemper’s claim, asserts Noel is dead, and returns Kemper to her cell.
- Noel
Kemper’s deceased husband; appears only as a point of comparison to an unidentified man.
- Unidentified man
new; visitor seen in the visiting area who looks like Noel; identity unknown.
- Pat the Rat
rat in Kemper’s cell; observed watching her as she tries to sleep.