STUDY GUIDE - THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS

CHAPTER 20

You Can Take a Road That Gets You To the Stars. I Can Take a Road That Will See Me Through. --Nick Drake

Summary

The chapter opens with Lena. In early August, she climbed back up to the olive grove to paint, unsure whether she had come there to see Kostos. Because she despaired of ever being able to tell him how she felt, she decided that this painting - the best one she had ever done - would be a gift to him.

Tibby had called in sick to WallmanÂ’s, wanting just to go to sleep and forget that Bailey was in the hospital. She looked lovingly into MimiÂ’s cage, thinking that the guinea pigÂ’s life was progressing so much faster that her own. Then, she noticed that Mimi hadnÂ’t eaten any of her food, and when she tapped on the glass wall of the cage, Mimi didnÂ’t move. She picked her up and held her in a high position which usually made Mimi scratch to get down. However, this time Mimi still didnÂ’t move. Tibby knew that Mimi wasnÂ’t there anymore. Her reaction was one of practicality - it was a wall against what was really happening to her beloved pet. She considered burying the guinea pig in the back yard, but then put her in a brown paper bag and hid her in the back of the freezer, thinking somewhere in the back of her mind that someday science could bring Mimi back to life. Upstairs later, she thought of writing to one of her friends, but came to the conclusion, that she had nothing to say.

Lena wrote to Carmen at this point telling how she had breakfast everyday with Bapi, but they had never had a single conversation with him. She decided that she would learn three sentences in Greek and say them to him. SheÂ’d feel like a failure if the summer ended, and they still hadnÂ’t spoken to each other. She ended the letter by asking Carmen to teach her how to be a normal person. She just didnÂ’t seem to get it.

The scene shifts to Carmen who, after her cry fest with Bailey and Tibby, returned home and told her mother she was angry at her father. She didnÂ’t understand why it was so hard for her to say that, and her mother told her that it was easier to be mad at people you trust, because you know that they will still love you. Carmen also asked if her dad had known that she was mad at him for moving away. Her mother replied that he told himself Carmen was okay, because we all tell ourselves the things we need to hear.

Once again the scene changes, this time to Tibby. She refused to come down for dinner even though her father tried hard to make her do so. She thought she would just stay there all night watching game shows and the WB. But then, the phone rang; Tibby refused to answer it. However, the caller was Bailey who wanted Tibby to call her at the hospital. Tibby could only shiver and think about Mimi down in the freezer.

A new shift occurs. This time, Bridget was reluctantly getting ready for the big game. She felt as if she lost weight and had run out of steam. When Mollie told her to go all out, she told her and the team that she didnÂ’t know if she remembered how. As a result, when the whistle blew to begin the game, she was slow and tentative. The other team scored twice in the first five minutes which made Mollie call her off the field. After she asked Bridget what the problem was, Bridget told her Mollie had wasted her talents when she was good, and right now, she wasnÂ’t. Mollie screamed that as the coach, she was trying to turn Bee from a show-off into a real player. Bee responded that she was a real player and walked off the field.

Notes

In this chapter, the characters are just working to find a road to see them through. Lena paints a gift for Kostos as an apology; Tibby adjusts to MimiÂ’s death and BaileyÂ’s coming death by curling up and sleeping; sleep is also BeeÂ’s way of coping with her big mistake and she even walks off the field when she can no longer turn to soccer for comfort; finally, Carmen turns to her mother to help her understand her dad.