Hidden Pictures

Ted is drunk and asks her to turn the light off. Mallory wants to get Caroline, but he protests. She gives him water and three aspirin as he tells her that he and Caroline had a fight. He came to the cottage because he needed space. Ted says that Mallory would make a good mother and notices that she’s wearing one of Caroline’s dresses—Caroline has always let Mallory wear her clothes. He says Mallory would hate it at their house if she had expanded her horizons—for instance, if she had been to Whidbey Island, where he spent a college summer working on a ranch. He says Spring Brook—where they live—is a trap. Caroline won’t touch him, which is why he sleeps in the guest room. They live there because her wealthy father wanted them close. Ted says he would take care of Mallory, and she finally gets him to leave. After he goes, she cleans the cottage and finds three of her bras in her bed. As she tries to sleep and forget about Ted, she prays that Adrian will forgive her lies.

In the morning, Mallory talks to Ted and Caroline. Ted apologizes for the previous night, and Mallory accepts. After he leaves, Caroline says he’s worried that Mallory will sue them and asks for Mallory’s version of events. Caroline says that Ted always talks about Whidbey Island when he’s drunk. She also asks if he tried anything inappropriate with her, and Mallory says no. Caroline reveals that Ted recently turned 53 and his business is struggling, on top of any midlife crisis symptoms he may be having. He runs a solo operation, which surprises Mallory, who thought he ran a large team.

As an experiment, Teddy is using Ted’s iPad for games as a replacement for drawing. Caroline asks about the party at Adrian’s house, and Mallory tells her that she has a date with Adrian that night. Later, when she is alone with Teddy, he plays Angry Birds. He doesn’t care what they do and acts sullen. They halfheartedly play Enchanted Forest outside, but Teddy only wants to talk about strategies for the video game. She sees the bottom half of an arrow on the path and pretends it’s for fighting goblins. During Quiet Time, Teddy laughs as he plays on the iPad, and Mallory feels sad at the change. It is as if he has lost interest in using his imagination overnight.

Mallory calls Rest Haven in Ohio and asks for Dolores. She leaves a message asking if her mother was Annie Barrett and leaves her number. Feeling vulnerable in her job, Mallory decides to go shopping and surprise the Maxwells with a prepared dinner. However, she falls asleep instead. She dreams about a childhood park called Storybook Land from her past. In the dream, she tries to draw but keeps dropping Teddy’s pencils as he hands them to her. She loses him in the crowd. She is about to call the Maxwells when she sees Teddy at Little Red Riding Hood’s cottage with her sister, Beth. In the dream, Mallory hugs Beth, who tells her not to be a dork. Beth says that she’s alive and the accident was a misunderstanding.

Teddy wakes her to charge the iPad. She’s been asleep for four hours, and the Maxwells will be home within minutes. Her fingers are dark black, and there are art supplies scattered around her. The walls are covered with sketches that look exactly like Anya’s drawings. She asks Teddy to get erasers, but Adrian and the Maxwells arrive at the same time before she can clean. Mallory tells them that Anya possessed her and made her draw on the walls. As proof, she says that she is left-handed, but her right hand is smudged with charcoal. Adrian takes pictures of the drawings because he wants to compare the sketches to the others. Caroline says Mallory must do a toxicology screen, and Adrian is confused. Adrian says Penn State wouldn’t have her on the team if she was on drugs. Ted then tells Adrian the truth about the halfway house and Mallory’s previous 18 months. Angry and confused, Adrian leaves.

Mallory and the Maxwells talk about an earlier conversation that Ted and Caroline had with Russell. He told them about her memory lapses. Two days earlier, Teddy had cried to them about losing his pencils. Then, drawings began appearing in the cottage. Caroline suggests that Mallory may be doing the drawing without realizing it. She thinks the woman in the drawings resembles Mallory. The woman is even running in some of the pictures. Caroline thinks of the art sequence as

a symbolic representation. A visual metaphor. You’ve lost your younger sister. You’re upset, you’re panicking, you’re desperate to bring her back—but it’s too late. She’s fallen into a valley of death…Then an angel appears to lead Beth to the light (238).

Mallory realizes that Russell told them about Beth. Caroline thinks the pictures of the strangling are “an abstract concept made literal” (238). She believes Mallory is the girl being buried and that the person burying her is freeing her. Perhaps it is meant to represent Russell.

The drug test is clean. Mallory insists again that Anya drew the pictures and tells Caroline and Ted that they’re in denial. Caroline says she can’t overlook the fact that Mallory left Teddy unsupervised for four hours, and Mallory realizes that she is being fired.

Russell calls while Mallory is in the cottage. He is concerned because Caroline sent him pictures of Mallory’s “art project” (241). When she tells him about the presence in the cottage, he tells her to get to a meeting. He will pick her up within three days. Mallory sleeps for 14 hours. When she wakes up, there is a note from Caroline. It says they went out and Mallory can use the house for the day. The next day, they want to celebrate Mallory’s time with their family. When she tries to go to the house, the passcode doesn’t work, so she can’t get in to look for more evidence. Adrian visits and takes her for a drive. She realizes that he is taking her home to her mother’s house. When she protests, they go to a park to talk. Mallory says she only lied about the past, but everything else is true. She then begins to tell him the truth.