Novel Monday -Friday

Wednesday Anna

Anna wonders what her funeral would be like. She doesn't think many people would come, unlike Kate's funeral, which would be crowded. At the courthouse, Anna speaks with Judge DeSalvo alone. They discuss the trial, and Anna tries to remain composed. But she recalls a time when she and Kate pulled a prank on a nurse at the hospital and starts to cry.

TUESDAY Anna

Anna and Sara sit with Kate at the hospital during her dialysis session. Sara talks about kidney donation while Anna thinks about all of the risks associated with the procedure.When Sara and Kate arrive home, Kate runs to her room, and Sara demands to know what Anna is doing. Anna refuses to drop the lawsuit, and despite Brian's protests, Sara grows even angrier until she slaps Anna.

Wednesday Anna pg 130

Anna asks Jesse to drive her to the hospital. Jesse tells Anna that she is not doing the wrong thing, but she tells him that she's not doing the right thing either. Jesse agrees to help Anna see Kate by distracting their mother. In a flashback, Kate wants to talk to Anna about death and the best way to die, but Anna refuses. In the present, Jesse pretends to be drunk in order to get Sara away from Kate's hospital room. Anna goes into Kate's room, and we see another flashback in which the entire family plays football on Thanksgiving.

Thursday Anna pg 178

Anna recalls imagining what life would be like if Kate died. It would be painful, but she also thinks of the exciting things she could do if Kate weren't alive. In the present, Anna sits with her parents in the hospital cafeteria. Vern Stackhouse serves Sara with a temporary restraining order requiring her not to have contact with Anna. Anna says she never asked for that but Sara is furious. Sara and Brian fight in the car about hiring a "real" lawyer.

Thursday Brian pg 194

Brian takes Anna to the fire station. He recalls his visit to the hospital earlier that afternoon. Kate slept, and Brian talked to Sara. He told her Anna was going to stay with him at the station. They argued when Brian told Sara he was worried about Anna. Sara said that, unlike him, she worries about both of their daughters. Later that night, the fire station receives a call to a nursing home where a woman has hit her head. Anna goes along and helps. They take the woman to the hospital, and Brian loses track of Anna. He finds her in Kate's room, curled up on Sara's lap. He takes her back to the station. Later, Anna and Brian watch a meteor shower from the station's roof. Anna wonders aloud if it would be possible to find a fallen star.

Friday Brian

Campbell arrives at the firehouse with Anna. When he and Brian talk alone, Brian admits he agrees with Anna and says he is willing to say so to the judge. Brian remembers an incident from the night before in which he shouted at a kid whose girlfriend overdosed on drugs. Another firefighter told Brian he could take time off, but Brian says that means he would have to be at home instead. Back in the present, as Campbell leaves he mentions Jesse's arrest.

Monday Campbell

Campbell gives his account of his meeting with Anna. He talks with her about her case and notices how angry she seems. He agrees to represent her because he thinks the case will be easy to win and great publicity. He doesn't think they will even need to go to trial, because Anna's parents will give in before that.

WEDNESDAY Campbell

Campbell, while on the phone with his mother, wonders how much people are beholden to their parents. Campbell stops for coffee and gives his waiter a new sarcastic explanation of his service dog, Judge. He returns to his office and finds Anna there. Sara calls while Anna is in the room with Campbell. Sara tells Campbell that Anna has changed her mind, but Anna tells Campbell she has not. Campbell recalls a memory of his father.

Wednesday Jesse

He reflects that Anna is the only proof he has that he belongs in the family. While driving down the highway, he imagines crashing his car because he would be worth more dead and used as parts. He meets a homeless man named Dan. Jesse has a deal with Dan where he brings Dan food if Dan will watch Jesse's things, including stolen acid and sawdust. Kate is vomiting blood. Jesse drives Kate to the ER.

Thursday Sara

In 1996, Sara throws Kate a party for her eighth birthday. Kate has been in remission for five years, but soon after the party Kate relapses. She starts on a new medication in an attempt to put her in remission. In the midst of this, Jesse reminds Sara she promised to take him to get new cleats after his orthodontist appointment. Sara tells him they can't do either, so Jesse attempts to pry his braces off his teeth with a fork.Anna arrives at the hospital to give blood and screams and cries during the procedure. Later, when the doctors need to take more blood, Sara forces Anna to leave a birthday party early.

Friday Sara

In 1997, Sara finds Kate with blood streaming down her legs. Kate has relapsed and needs a bone marrow transplant. The family's insurance company refuses to cover the transplant. The time arrives for Anna's bone-marrow extraction, and Sara tells her she doesn't have to do it but that everyone is counting on her. Sara goes to be with Kate. Brian arrives after Anna's procedure and says Anna has been asking for Sara. Sara feels torn but goes to see Anna. Anna says she hurts, so Sara finds a nurse to give her medication. When Sara goes back to Anna's room, she sees Brian putting the locket on Anna's neck.Sara shaves her own head, and then Anna asks to have her head shaved, too. All bald, they go to the mall.

Wednesday Campbell

In another flashback, we see Campbell and Julia as teenagers sharing their first kiss.Back in the present, Campbell goes to see Anna at her house. Initially, he feels awkward around Anna and admits that he usually doesn't spend time with his clients. Later that night, Campbell visits Julia. At first he confuses her with her twin sister, Izzy, who acts angrily toward Campbell. Campbell and Julia talk and catch up. Julia admits to Campbell that it is hard to be around him after everything that happened between them. They share their first kiss.

Friday Campbell

In flashbacks, Campbell recalls more scenes from his high-school relationship with Julia. Campbell's friends teased him about Julia, but he would not defend her. Campbell also avoided telling his parents about Julia, which Julia suspected. When he finally took her to meet them, his parents behaved rudely and refused to invite her to a party the rest of the family was attending. Afterward, Campbell began ignoring Julia. One day they met at the cemetery, and Campbell told Julia their relationship was over.

Monday Brian

In the present day again, Brian Fitzgerald describes a fire at a medical school. The fire started because a body got stuck in the cremation incinerator. Sara mentions that she has to take Kate to dialysis the next day. Later that night, Anna visits Brian at the station. She doesn't want to talk, but together they watch the stars from the station's roof.

Thursday Jesse

Jesse arrives home to find Julia on his doorstep. He tries to flirt with her. She asks for Anna, but Jesse says no one is home. Julia brushes off Jesse's continued flirtations and asks him about his family. He tells her a story about a Christmas Eve when he was 12 and Kate was in the hospital. Anna had to be taken in to give white blood cells, and Jesse was sent to a neighbor's house. He left and chopped down a tree from his family's front yard, then set it up in the living room and decorated it. The next day when he opened his gifts he realized they were all from the hospital gift shop. Brian and Sara never even noticed the tree. Jesse says that the story explains what it has been like to grow up in his family. He says at least Anna is on their parents' radar.

Wednesday Julia

Julia argues with her twin sister, Izzy, until Judge DeSalvo calls. The judge asks Julia if she will be the guardian ad litem in Anna's case. Julia agrees and goes to the Fitzgerald house where she meets Anna. Julia takes Anna to the zoo to talk, hoping it might loosen her up. Julia can't determine why exactly Anna filed the lawsuit, but she realizes that Anna will either lose her sister or herself.

Thursday Brian

Julia meets Brian at the fire station and helps him cook breakfast. They discuss Anna, and Brian hesitates to state his opinion. He thinks about an incident where he saved a child from a burning building. Brian admits he became a firefighter to save people but wishes he could have been more specific about who to save. He asks Julia if he can take her to meet someone but doesn't say who the person is.

Thursday Julia

Julia rides with Brian in his car. In flashbacks, we see Julia at her apartment sobbing the previous night after Campbell left, then going to a bar where she drinks heavily. She remembers how Campbell felt attracted to her because she was different from everyone else at their school. They would meet after school in the cemetery and talk. One day Campbell told Julia he loved her, and they had sex.

Thursday Campbell

Outside the courthouse, Campbell speaks to the reporters. He recognizes that he wants to draw attention to the case to capitalize on it. Sara and Campbell speak to Judge DeSalvo. Julia arrives, tells the judge that Anna is confused, and it would be a mistake to remove Sara from the house. Judge DeSalvo refuses to grant the restraining order, but he orders Sara not to say one more word to Anna about the case. Julia, Campbell, and Sara go outside to see Anna only to discover she has left with Brian.

Summary of tuesday

Sara's angry reaction to Anna's lawsuit reflects the single-mindedness of her character, which we have seen previously, whereas the other members of the family react in more complex ways. While Sara immediately berates Anna for her choice, Brian insists that his daughter be allowed to explain. As in the previous section, he seems to see—or at least wants to see—all the members of the family. Kate also reacts with concern for Anna. When she talks to Anna, she expresses sadness, not anger. Anna, meanwhile, behaves in contradictory ways. She won't back down, but she also wants desperately to let her mother fix things. She may be rebelling against her mother's wishes, but she is not yet strong enough or mature enough to be entirely independent. The reader sees that, despite the very bold step she has taken by filing her lawsuit, Anna is still just a child.

Monday Sara

Sara's narration jumps back in time to 1990. While bathing Kate and Jesse, Sara talks to Brian, her husband and a career firefighter, and she recalls her decision to give up her career as an attorney to become a stay-at-home mother. Kate has acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer.Sara refuses to let Kate die.

MONDAY prologue

The epigraph states that no one in his right mind starts a war unless they are absolutely clear on two things: what he wants to achieve, and how he plans to achieve it. An unidentified person narrates the second part of the prologue from a first-person point of view. This narrator recalls the time she was three years old and attempted to kill her sister. Her father stopped her and implied she pretend the incident never happened. The narrator confesses that as she grew older she didn't seem to exist except in relation to her sister. She thought of many different ways she could kill her, but ultimately the narrator says she didn't do anything after all, because her sister did it on her own.The opening epigraph immediately sets a dark and dramatic tone for the novel.

Wednesday Sara

The time is 1990-1991 and Sara is pregnant with Anna. Sara knows everything about the baby, from the sex to the specific combination of genes that will allow Anna to be a donor for Kate. She admits that she has thought of Anna only in terms of what she will be able to do for Kate. Sara reveals that three months after chemo, Kate went into molecular relapse. Sara recalls the television interview she and Brian did. They explain why they went to a geneticist and deny wanting a "designer baby."

MONDAY Anna

Thirteen-year-old Anna Fitzgerald begins narrating the story, which will continually alternate among different first-person narrators, in the present. She talks about the different reasons babies come into being and admits that she was born for a very specific purpose. Scientists used her mother's eggs and father's sperm to create a specific combination of genes. They created her in this way so she would be able to save her sister, Kate. Anna talks about visiting a pawnshop to sell a locket. She has a difficult time parting from the locket because her father gave it to her as a gift after she donated bone marrow to Kate. Anna goes on to describe herself as skinny and a freak. She talks about her family, how her sister Kate has leukemia, and how she has had to undergo medical procedures to help Kate whenever Kate has gotten sick. Her mother, meanwhile, obsessively shops online, and her older brother, Jesse, behaves like a delinquent because their parents don't have time to care about him.

Tuesday Sara

in 1990, Sara and Brian see an oncologist named Dr. Chance, who will be in charge of Kate's treatments. Sara calls her older sister, Zanne, whom she has fallen out of touch with, and later Zanne arrives to help the family out. Sara and Brian feel overwhelmed with the list of details and questions facing them about Kate's cancer and treatment. Since Kate's form of cancer often resists treatment, the doctors admit they can only do so much. Sara asks what it will be like if Kate dies and wonders how she would survive it. Kate starts chemotherapy and gets extremely sick. The doctors test Jesse to see if he is a genetic match for Kate, since she might need bone marrow if she relapses, but he is not. Dr. Chance tells Sara that if she and Brian have more children, one sibling could be a match. After chemo, Kate develops an infection and has to be rushed to the hospital. While at the hospital.