The Good Part

On her way home, Lucy calls her father and has a nice chat about nothing important, which makes her feel a little bit better. When she gets home, Sam sits her down for a talk during which he tells her about their daughter, Chloe, who died of an infection while still a baby after surgery for a heart defect. Sam says, “On Saturday, it felt like we were thirty-one again, having a fun first date, all the heavy stuff, the day-to-day stuff, erased. But I don’t want to erase Chloe. I wouldn’t want her never to have existed” (222).

When she goes to bed, Lucy looks through old photos and videos on her phone. She feels guilty that she felt much deeper grief learning about Zoya’s death than she feels now for the baby she never knew.

Maria arrives to take care of the children, so Lucy goes off to work. She’s overwhelmed by the emails. After work, Lucy goes to Faye and Alex’s house, where Roisin will join them. The women joke together about Lucy’s memory loss and listen as she fills them in on the troubles she has had figuring things out.

Roisin shares how her marriage fell apart when her husband became jealous of her success. Alex and Faye seem perfectly in love. They talk about the pros and cons of being in their forties versus their twenties. While Lucy misses Zoya terribly, she feels comforted by this time with her closest friends.

Sam is waiting for Lucy when she gets home, and Lucy has a sudden flash of memory about their shared past. Sam tells her stories about their courtship and life together until she falls asleep.

Lucy wakes up with a fresh perspective and decides that it was unreasonable to expect she would get everything perfect in her new life without effort and practice. She receives a message from an online user named Crock Pouch saying that they should check with Arcade Dave about the wishing machine they are looking for. 

Felix is excited and wants to skip school and go right away. Lucy says no, and as Felix asks for more raisins, she abruptly recalls that Felix does not even like raisins. He explains that he changed his mind and likes them on cereal now, but both he and Lucy wonder what it means that she remembered that detail on her own. As Lucy drops Felix off at school, he asks to look in her bag for his library card. Lucy thinks he has a guilty look in his eyes as he says goodbye and leaves the car.

At work, Lucy feels overwhelmed by all her responsibilities, so on her lunch break, she returns to Selfridges to try to return her extravagant purchases. However, she can only get store credit back.

Later that day, Sam calls, frantic, because Felix is missing from school. Using a tracker on Felix’s iPad, they see that he is in London. Lucy suspects that Felix was looking for Arcade Dave and the wishing machine.

Lucy rushes to find Felix, who was found by a guard on the train. He admits that he planned to meet Arcade Dave by himself because she would not take him. He begs her to take him now, and Lucy does, despite misgivings about letting Felix have his way after running away from school. Felix creates a logbook to track their adventure.

They find Arcade Dave, who says he does not have a machine matching their description but that he will contact them if he finds one. While Felix is disappointed, he says that quests usually have multiple stages, so he is not ready to give up. They go for a walk and end up outside Lucy’s old apartment building. She and Felix share stories about their friends and then run into Mr. Finkley, her old upstairs neighbor. He invites them into his apartment, where he shares some of his life story and gives Felix a compass for his adventures. On the train home, Felix suggests that Lucy consider the game she played with Felix and Amy the other night for a TV show idea.

Back at home, Felix receives his punishment of no screen time. Sam and Lucy decide to take the kids out for an impromptu walk among the bluebells. Felix points out that it’s Pocket Day, a day when everyone in the family happens to be wearing clothes with pockets.

Felix trips and Lucy suddenly remembers Felix falling on that exact path before and getting the scar that is on his forehead. Later, Felix joins Lucy and Sam in bed, claiming his chin hurts, and “Sam squeezes [Lucy’s] hand twice, a lovers’ Morse code in the dark” (265).

Lucy arrives at work early, ready to pitch the idea that Felix encouraged her to share. She asks for the team to help her take it from a concept to a workable pitch. Lucy describes imaginative play where everyday scenes, like a living room, become a wild sea with sea monsters and obstacles to overcome. Trey creates 3D renderings of the monsters that the team imagines, and the team is excited about the idea.

Trey needs Lucy’s office to work on the project, so Lucy goes home to work, but she is distracted and decides to see Sam in his studio. She asks him to tell her more about his creative process, and she is fascinated, asking many questions. Lucy discovers that she can play piano now because Sam taught her. The romantic tension between them grows.

Lucy raves to Faye later about how wonderful Sam is, and Faye says it reminds her of how Lucy behaved the first time she fell in love with Sam. Lucy worries that she does not deserve this great life, but Faye reminds her that Lucy went through many ups and downs to get to this point. Lucy wishes she could remember Chloe.

At Saturday breakfast, Felix comments on how “weird” Sam and Lucy look at each other. Then he asks about his birthday celebration: He wants to invite Mr. Finkley. Lucy discourages this idea, but Felix insists, and Lucy eventually agrees. After Felix leaves the room, Lucy suggests that Sam write Felix a song for his birthday, but Sam is upset by the idea and insists that he does not write songs anymore. Lucy is baffled by his response.