The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Caroline watches children playing on a playground, remembering how she used to travel with Al after Doro left:“Life on the road seemed like falling through strange holes in the universe, as if you might walk into a restroom in one city in America and then walk out the same door to find yourself somewhere else: the same strip malls and gas stations and fast food places” (242). She takes a bus to the Carnegie Museum to see David speak about his photography. Caroline thinks about how she almost didn’t go and how David was her impetus behind moving to Pittsburgh. Caroline looks at David’s photographs, realizing that many of them are of Norah. She listens to David speak, surprised at how old he has gotten. She is surprised he does not see her immediately, but then understands “that she was just another face in the crowd” (244).

She goes up to him after the speech. When David finally recognizes her, he whisks her into a storage closet and bombards her with questions. Then they are silent. David says he tried to look for her, and Caroline admits to being in love with him. David said he had used this knowledge so that she would help him.