28. July 27, 2021

In the chap­ter, Hol­ly Gib­ney inves­ti­gates Cary Dressler’s dis­ap­pear­ance, focus­ing on his con­nec­tions to the local bowl­ing com­mu­ni­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly the team known as the Gold­en Oldies. Begin­ning at Strike Em Out bowl­ing alley, where she dis­creet­ly pho­tographs a group pic­ture includ­ing a young Bar­bara Robin­son, Hol­ly’s inves­ti­ga­tion leads her to Hugh Clip­pard, a mem­ber of the Gold­en Oldies. At Clip­pard’s lux­u­ri­ous res­i­dence, she learns more about Cary’s char­ac­ter, his infor­mal role with­in the team, and the close-knit nature of the bowl­ing com­mu­ni­ty, despite recent loss­es and changes. Clip­pard reveals some mem­bers bought mar­i­jua­na from Cary, which indi­cates a per­son­al con­nec­tion beyond the lanes. Despite the light-heart­ed recount of past times, a sense of melan­choly per­me­ates the con­ver­sa­tion as Clip­pard con­tem­plates the impacts of aging and the chang­ing dynam­ics of their group.

Hol­ly’s method­i­cal approach to her inves­ti­ga­tion demon­strates her ded­i­ca­tion to uncov­er­ing the truth behind Cary’s dis­ap­pear­ance. She plans to con­tin­ue her inquiry by vis­it­ing oth­er team mem­bers, cau­tious­ly opti­mistic but aware of the chal­lenges ahead. Mean­while, Bar­bara Robin­son, strug­gling with writer’s block for an impor­tant essay, even­tu­al­ly finds clar­i­ty and a burst of inspi­ra­tion through phys­i­cal exer­tion and a men­tal break­through. She rebel­lious­ly dis­miss­es con­ven­tion­al expec­ta­tions, sym­bol­i­cal­ly writ­ing her essay across the ruled lines of her note­book, declar­ing that her poet­ry itself is her truest expres­sion and sub­mis­sion for the con­test.

This chap­ter sketch­es a vivid pic­ture of Hol­ly’s inves­tiga­tive dili­gence and Bar­bara’s cre­ative strug­gle and defi­ance. It also delves into the themes of com­mu­ni­ty, aging, and self-expres­sion, por­tray­ing char­ac­ters grap­pling with per­son­al and col­lec­tive trans­for­ma­tions.