Darling Girls

The narrative shifts to six months earlier. The story is now told from a third-person perspective that follows a woman named Jessica. She works as “Australia’s leading expert on home organization” (5), frequently appearing on talk shows to deliver handy organizational tips. Today, Jessica is annoyed when she is delayed by a home organization client named Debbie, who invited all of her friends over to watch as Jessica reorganized the woman’s bathroom cabinets. Just as Jessica is getting ready to leave, Debbie calls her over and backhandedly accuses her of stealing a bottle of Valium from the cabinet. When Jessica offers her purse to be searched, Debbie demurs, and Jessica is finally able to leave.

As Jessica gets into her car, she receives a call from a detective named Ashleigh Patel, and Jessica feels panic at hearing the name. The only reason she can think that the police would contact her is because of her sister, Norah, who has frequently gotten into trouble for assaulting her peers. However, instead of asking about Norah, the detective requests help with her investigation and asks whether Jessica ever lived at a foster home called Wild Meadows Farm in the 1990s. The detective reveals that during recent excavations for a planned parking lot, something was uncovered at Wild Meadows. Jessica feels sick. She reaches into her purse, pulls out the stolen bottle of Valium, and takes a couple of pills. She asks the detective what was found.

The perspective shifts to Jessica’s sister, Norah, who is enduring a disappointing date at a Mexican restaurant with a man named Kevin. Norah is annoyed by Kevin’s perceived stupidity. Often, she goes on dates just to have them purchase food and help around her house. Her therapist is concerned about this pattern of turning sex into a quid pro quo relationship. Norah’s therapist wonders whether Norah’s transactional attitude toward sex stems from the events of her childhood, but Norah refuses to consider this line of inquiry.

Now, Norah tells Kevin about her work, which involves completing psychometric tests on behalf of employees who work for businesses that require such tests; essentially, she engages in a form of cheating. Norah notices Kevin’s interest in her and assumes it is because of her physical beauty. Norah also receives a call from Detective Patel, who asks her about Wild Meadows Farm. Distraught by the call, which she has taken on the street, away from the restaurant, Norah attempts to escape her date, but Kevin spies her and follows. Norah tells the detective to hold on, then spins around and punches Kevin in the face, breaking his nose.

Alicia is a social worker who is dealing with a new foster child named Theo, who has been removed from his home due to his neglectful father. Theo has spent the past few hours lying on the floor under a table, facing the wall. Alicia tries to coax him out with chocolate and gets bit in the process. As another person comes in to try to help, Alicia receives a call from Detective Patel, who asks about her childhood at Wild Meadows Farm. Alicia reacts with shock; she has been waiting for this call for 25 years. The detective tells Alicia the same story she told Jessica—that a body has been found on the premises if Wild Meadows. Alicia trembles and starts to relive the events at Wild Meadows Farm so many years ago.

After the call from Detective Patel, Jessica cancels her appointments and heads home to find her sisters, Norah and Alicia, waiting for her in her living room. Jessica is wealthier than either of her sisters, so her home is a convenient meeting spot. Alicia wonders whose body has been found. Jessica snaps at her, feeling nervous. Jessica is prone to anxiety, with “panic [as] her constant state of being” (25). Norah informs the others that the police want the three sisters to head to Port Agatha the following day. Jessica frantically wonders whether she is capable of going back there.

Just then, Jessica’s husband Phil arrives. He works as a groundskeeper at a country club, and Jessica sees him as radiating contentment, a trait that she envies. Jessica sends Phil away, and Alicia insists that they obey the police. However, Jessica feels as if this approach is a losing battle; the last time they told the police what had happened in their childhood, none of them was taken seriously. Norah wonders whether the body might be related to their past experiences, and this idea causes Norah and Jessica to react with fear. However, they both understand that their experiences might help the investigation.

Chapter 5 opens with the subtitle “Before,” indicating a flashback. Before Jessica came to Wild Meadows, she only had a few scattered memories. According to her social worker, Jessica previously lived with her mother, a Chinese immigrant, in a small apartment above her mother’s workplace. One day, Jessica was at day care when she was informed of her mother’s suicide and her new placement at a foster home. The social worker told her that her new foster mother was a single woman without children who lived “on a country estate called Wild Meadows with horses and a swimming pool” (30). When Jessica arrived at the farmhouse, it was just as the social worker had promised and looked like “something out of a storybook” (31).

At the house, a woman with wavy blonde hair and a white dress introduced herself as Miss Fairchild and comforted Jessica over the loss of her mother. Miss Fairchild promised to make everything better, so that Jessica would forget that her mother ever existed. Initially, Miss Fairchild gave Jessica everything she could want, including love and security. As a result, Jessica followed her around the house and slept with her in bed, worried about losing her too. On Jessica’s fifth birthday, Miss Fairchild dressed her in a pink tutu with a tiara and invited a number of local children whom Jessica had never met before. Jessica had fun, and by the end of the party, she found herself wishing that Miss Fairchild had always been her mother. Miss Fairchild suggested pretending that this were true and had Jessica call her “Mummy.”

On her first day of school, Jessica held onto Miss Fairchild’s legs, insisting that she didn’t want to go. However, she was made to, and she spent hours missing Miss Fairchild until the teacher gave her some responsibilities, after which Jessica started to have fun. When Jessica met Miss Fairchild after school, she told her about a new friend named Bonnie. However, Miss Fairchild became stiff and did not ask Jessica any questions about her day.

Later that afternoon, Miss Fairchild suggested that they go swimming. Jessica was afraid, but Miss Fairchild shamed her into agreeing. Despite promising to keep Jessica afloat, Miss Fairchild would step away each time Jessica reached out to her. Jessica had to thrash her arms to stay above the surface. Eventually, Jessica was able to keep her head above the water, to Miss Fairchild’s delight. As Jessica vomited up water, Miss Fairchild praised her for learning to swim.

Months went by without any further visitors, and the only time Jessica interacted with anyone besides Miss Fairchild was at school. Jessica learned to “please,” “charm,” and “soothe” (40) Miss Fairchild when she realized that this was the only wait to attain the woman’s love. At Wild Meadows, they spent each day cleaning religiously. Miss Fairchild was obsessed with frugality, purchasing clothes from charity stores and buying food past its best-buy date. Sometimes, Miss Fairchild would get up and balance the books at night, seemingly anxious about her budget.

One day, Jessica’s social worker, Scott Michaels, visited Wild Meadows. Miss Fairchild sent Jessica away, but Jessica overheard Scott telling her about plans to place a new child in their home. Though Jessica initially didn’t want a new child in the home, Miss Fairchild convinced her to embrace it.

The narrative shifts back to the first-person narrator in Dr. Warren’s office. Dr. Warren presses the narrator to describe her time at Wild Meadows, but the narrator refuses, to Dr. Warren’s annoyance. The narrator wonders whether Dr. Warren truly wants to help or merely wants to learn what happened at Wild Meadows. The narrator tells Dr. Warren about her childhood; she was raised on a farm, and when her father died of a heart attack, the community rallied around her mother. Her father’s death triggered her mother’s depression; her mother stopped doing chores, seeing people, or paying the bills. The narrator continues to share details from her childhood, to Dr. Warren’s delight.

The novel returns to the present-day timeline. The sisters have agreed to head to Port Agatha and speak to the police the next morning. Unlike Jessica, Norah is more neutral about heading back to Port Agatha, as she is curious to see who the bones belong to. As Norah gets into her car, exhausted from all the social interaction, she receives a text from Kevin, admonishing her for breaking his nose and telling her that he is in the emergency room.

Norah offers to pay for his treatment, but Kevin declines, saying that it isn’t about the money. In response, Norah sends him a photo of her breasts in order to test his principles. Kevin responds with shock, and Norah tells him not to go to the police, as she has a history of infractions. As she drives off, Norah reflects that her unorthodox methods of taking care of her problems helped her and her sisters to survive their abusive childhood.

The narrative flashes back to Norah’s childhood and describes her arrival at Wild Meadows. Her social worker, Scott Michaels, told her that she was lucky to be placed in this environment. She was 10 years old at the time, and Wild Meadows was her seventh placement. Norah disliked Scott, judging him to be creepy because his eyes lingered on her body when he’d collected her that morning. Norah felt suspicious of her new placement and asked Scott whether there was also a Mr. Fairchild, as a previous foster father had tried to assault her. She felt relieved when Scott informed her that there was no Mr. Fairchild.

Miss Fairchild took Norah inside the house, gushing to Jessica about Norah’s beauty. Norah asked about the house rules, and when Miss Fairchild told her about the cleaning, she claimed the chore for herself, over Jessica’s protests. Miss Fairchild told Norah that the bedtime in the house was 8 pm, and that she would sleep in the same bedroom as Jessica. When Jessica complained, Miss Fairchild snapped at her and gripped her arm tightly, to the shock of both girls.

That night, Norah refused to go into the unlit bedroom because she was afraid of the dark. Miss Fairchild, delighted to be able to help, brought her a lamp from downstairs. After Miss Fairchild left, Jessica told Norah that it was a mistake to tell Miss Fairchild about her fears, saying, “One day, that will come back to bite you” (58).

Norah spent the first few weeks of her placement observing Miss Fairchild, noting her frugality and her desire that all conversation center around herself. Norah frequently found herself hungry, as the food that Miss Fairchild served was neither filling nor nutritious. Norah also noticed that Miss Fairchild had knowledge about her that she shouldn’t have, such as the fact that Norah frequently ate her entire lunch at recess, or that she once stopped by a park on her way home from school.

Norah also found Miss Fairchild to be unpredictable, sometimes showering her with an off-putting sweetness and at other times reacting with sudden anger. After a few weeks, Norah settled into the new routine at school and at home, which she enjoyed, as routines were unusual in her life in the foster care system. Both Norah and Jessica were extremely intelligent children who enjoyed school.

One day, Norah saw a bigger girl bullying Jessica at school. Although she usually found Jessica annoying at home, she defended her foster sister from the bully. That night, when Miss Fairchild discovered that Norah and Jessica had become friends, she pretended to be pleased, even though she clearly was not. When scolded for not putting the laundry away, Jessica protested that the laundry was Norah’s chore, and Miss Fairchild shoved a bar of soap into Jessica’s mouth as punishment for talking back. As Jessica began to choke, Norah stepped forward and slapped Miss Fairchild’s hands away from Jessica’s mouth. Jessica ran to the sink and vomited. Miss Fairchild, with little reaction, told Norah to put the laundry away.

After four months at Wild Meadows, Scott returned for his first visit to see how Norah was doing. Norah didn’t tell him anything that was happening at the house, because she didn’t trust him. As he was leaving, Norah overheard him offering another placement to Miss Fairchild. Later, when Alicia was brought to live at the house, Norah noticed that Miss Fairchild hated her at first sight.

The narrative returns to the present. At Jessica’s house, Alicia wishes that she had gone home earlier. Now, Jessica prepares a list of questions to protect her and her sisters from suspicion. When Jessica suggests heading to Port Agatha with a lawyer, Alicia argues that this would make them look suspicious. However, when Jessica accepts this, Alicia feels nervous, as Alicia knows herself to be impulsive and prone to rash decisions. She does not want to make a decision that will bring harm to her sisters.

Alicia finally leaves her sister’s house, but when she starts her car, she receives a call from an unknown number telling her that she owes the caller $10. She learns that the call is from Aaron, a foster child she knows. Alicia is a social worker, and although Aaron is not one of her cases, they still have a rapport. The two converse, and Alicia impulsively asks him what happened to his parents. Aaron does not know who his father is, and his mother is disabled. Aaron was raised by his grandmother until her death six months ago.

They end the call, and Alicia finds herself outside her colleague Meera’s home. Meera works as a child protection lawyer, and Alicia considers her a hero. Alicia also has a crush on Meera. She reminisces about kissing Meera one night. Meera returned the affection, but Alicia ended the kiss and apologized, reasoning that she and Meera would never be a couple. Now, Alicia drives home, feeling a crushing depression. She considers driving off the edge of an embankment but decides not to, as that decision would impact her sisters.

The narrative flashes back to Alicia’s childhood, when she was first placed with Miss Fairchild. As Alicia’s social worker, Sandi, drove her to Miss Fairchild’s home, Alicia thought about her grandmother, who was recently hospitalized after a fall. Alicia’s father died when she was very young, and her mother had a mental health crisis, so Alicia was raised by her grandmother until her grandmother’s injury.

Miss Fairchild disapproved of Alicia from the moment they met and instructed Norah and Jessica to help Alicia bring her suitcases inside. Alicia made a joke to break the tension, and both Norah and Jessica laughed. However, they immediately stop laughing upon seeing Miss Fairchild watching them from the doorway. As Sandi headed back to her car, Alicia wanted to run after her, but she stopped herself.

Miss Fairchild immediately set all three children to their cleaning tasks. Norah taught Alicia how to clean to Miss Fairchild’s standards. When Miss Fairchild checked in on them, Norah covered for Alicia, but Miss Fairchild saw through the ruse and told her to clean all the bathrooms herself the following day. At dinner, Alicia asked for more food, but Miss Fairchild accused her of being overfed at her grandmother’s house. When Alicia went to bed that night, she discovered that Norah and Jessica were not allowed to speak to each other after the lights were turned off.

The next morning, the three girls walked to school together in the heat. By lunchtime, Alicia was extremely hungry but only found two rice crackers and an apple in her lunch. That evening, Alicia asked Miss Fairchild if she could call her grandmother in the hospital. Miss Fairchild refused her request and asserted that her grandmother was probably tired of her, upsetting Alicia immensely. When Alicia went to bed that night, she found a package of barbecue chips in her bed; Norah and Jessica left them because they thought that Alicia seemed hungry. In response, Alicia told the other girls jokes until they finally began to laugh.

During the night, Alicia sneaked downstairs to steal food from the cabinets. She cleaned up as best she could and returned to bed. The next morning, the girls found Miss Fairchild sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for them with the empty cereal box. Alicia admitted what she had done, and Miss Fairchild called her “disgusting.” As punishment, Alicia was forbidden from using cutlery or plates. Miss Fairchild opened a can of baked beans, poured them on the floor, and to the girls’ horror, forced Alicia to eat the beans off the floor like a dog.