Gerald's Game

Jessie repeats Nora’s counting mantra to calm down, still changing some of the couplets to self-deprecating comments. The Goody voice asks permission to speak, and Jessie imagines Goody in a pillory in a town square. Goody raises her face, and Jessie can see that it is herself at age 12, with a sign above her head stating that her crime was “sexual enticement.” This crime seems ludicrous for a 12-year-old, and Goody tells Jessie that she needs to get out of the handcuffs before nightfall, reminding her to think about what Gerald said about the handcuffs when he bought them. Jessie remembers Gerald coming home, excited to unveil the cuffs, and how he rambled about them for an extended period. The cuffs are size M-17, meaning male cuffs with 17 notches, as opposed to the F-23 cuffs that Gerald wanted. Jessie tries again to fit her hands through the cuffs despite the pain, thinking that she might be small enough to fit through cuffs that were intended for male wrists. This does not work, and the voices prod her to keep thinking of other ways to escape.