A Head Full of Ghosts

Merry meets Rachel at a café for their final interview, wearing a red coat like the one she considered the focal point of her “reporter” outfit in Chapter 18. Rachel gently confronts Merry, indicating she has read the blog. Merry is eager to be praised for it. Rachel obliges but admits being perplexed that Merry can write from such a detached perspective. Rachel asks if Merry plans to reveal herself as “Karen,” and Merry asks her not to. Rachel asks if Merry believes everything written in the blog, and Merry says “yes”; “Karen” is a pseudonym, not a vehicle for a hypothetical perspective.

Sensing Rachel’s mistrust and doubt, Merry controls the conversation, asking what Rachel discovered about the aftermath of The Possession. The novel mentions “the poisoning” for the first time. Rachel learned that Marjorie’s jump, classified as a suicide attempt, resulted in police intervention and admittance to a psychiatric hospital. A state investigation determined Marjorie’s exorcism and lapse in medical treatment did not constitute abuse or neglect, but once home, mandated visits with a state psychiatrist occurred twice weekly. Amidst this serious conversation, Merry says “yay, me,” applauding herself when Rachel affirms a metaphor Merry uses makes sense.

Barry confirmed the film crew left immediately after Marjorie jumped, distancing themselves entirely from the Barretts. Rachel reports that Dad threatened to sue both the production company and the church. Despite being prescribed two antipsychotics, neither appear in Marjorie’s toxicology report. Merry believes her mother was taking pills and that their father was still trying to cure Marjorie with prayer; she would not be surprised if Marjorie was not being monitored to ensure medication compliance.

Rachel presents a series of emails between Dad and the man he assaulted, who had written an ominous note suggesting that Dad knew what he had to do just a few days before the poisoning.

Merry asks the barista if he can turn down the heat. He apologizes and says he has no control over the system. Merry asks Rachel if she was able to find out where Dad obtained the potassium cyanide. The police believe the pastor sent it to him, but it was also not difficult to obtain. Merry asks Rachel if the report says anything about fingerprints. Merry asks to read the report. She gets the sense that Rachel is keeping information from her and launches into her own narrative.

The narrative flashes back to before Christmas, with Marjorie sliding a note under Merry’s door. Marjorie asks if Merry remembers the story about the vines. Marjorie brings Merry to her computer, asking her to read several news stories. There are dozens of examples of men who, being laid off, feeling slighted, or having their masculinity challenged, took it out on their families in “murder-suicides.” Marjorie summarizes an academic study which found that men whose status as head of household was threatened by lack of compliance, who were financially inadequate, and who were incapable of discerning the role they themselves played in their own dysfunction posed the greatest threat. Marjorie is convinced that their father plans to kill them. Marjorie confides in Merry that she hoped the show would expose their father as the one who truly needed help. Now, Marjorie believes she needs to do something.

She claims that their father has a shrine in their basement where he keeps a white jar filled with poison. Marjorie tells stories about their parents Merry has never heard. Marjorie recalls sexual impropriety, engaging in intercourse in parts of the house other than their bedroom with their children around, fights when they were drunk and became violent and destructive of property, and when Dad, in anger, pulled on Marjorie’s arm so hard he dislocated her shoulder. Marjorie tells Merry that their mother’s deterioration has made the situation even more dire. Marjorie gives Merry the jar of poison and distracts their mother, while Merry stirs the white powder into the marinara sauce simmering on the stove.

Merry, as usual, eats her spaghetti with only butter and cheese. Merry watches her parents serve themselves poisoned sauce. In shock, Merry watches Marjorie serve herself as well. Merry is horrified; Marjorie was supposed to abstain from eating the poison. Merry is angry, thinking Marjorie had tricked her, and that it wasn’t poison at all, but soon her parents and sister begin to react.

As they convulse, Merry says Marjorie’s name over and over, asking how long until the poison wears off. Merry watches them grow still. Merry transfers Marjorie’s fingerprints onto the jar and goes to the basement looking for the shrine Marjorie claimed their father had built, but she finds nothing there.

In the present, Merry says that she remembers going upstairs to her bedroom with her Richard Scarry books, and that she remained there for three days until her Aunt Erin arrived. Rachel tries to interrupt, but Merry continues. Merry admits that she has read the police report, despite insinuating earlier in their conversation that she hadn’t, and knows that this memory must be false. Merry knows she was found under the kitchen table amidst the stench and gore of her family’s rotting bodies, with the thumb of her mother’s corpse in her mouth.

Pausing in her story, Merry reflects on how cold it has gotten in the café, reaching for her red coat. Rachel concedes that it has grown cold. Her attitude has shifted; she appears to be seeing Merry through a new lens, one of pity. Rachel reflects that after having extensive research for this project, and now having heard Merry’s version of events, she is not sure what to believe. Merry retreats into a reflection on her unstable memory, offering myriad excuses for why her version of events may not align with what Rachel has learned in the course of her investigation into The Possession and her family’s deaths. She claims she was manipulated into poisoning her sister and her parents. Around them, patrons and the barista all show signs of feeling the cold inside the café. Rachel notes that the only discernable fingerprints on the jar of poison belonged to their father, the rest of the jar was so smudged that the others could not be identified. Rachel begins to ask questions, attempting to pick apart the discrepancies between what Merry claims and the facts in the police report, but Merry stands up to go, claiming she is tired and wants to go home. Rachel hugs her, and offers to have dinner with her, but Merry believes Rachel will be too busy writing “our” book. As Merry hugs Rachel goodbye, it is cold enough that she can see her breath in the air inside the café.