In A Dark Dark Wood

Nora wakes up in the hospital with every part of her body hurting. She smells blood on herself. A voice calls her “Leonora” and tells her that the doctors will scan her for injuries. Nora sees a woman speaking to her and whispers that her name is “Nora.” The nurse tells Nora to relax and assures her that the scan will not hurt. Nora rebuffs this in her mind: “But it does. Everything hurts. What has happened? What have I done?” (3).

Nora recalls a scene, prior to the present time when she is in the hospital. In her memory, she wakes up in her London apartment where she lives alone, thinking about her day. Nora always gets up at the same time and follows the same routine. When she returns from her morning run, she showers and thinks about reading her emails. Nora is a writer and receives emails through her website contact form but has not checked them in a while.

When she checks her email, she sees a message from someone named Florence Clay, with the subject line “CLARE’S HEN!!!” (6). Nora thinks that she doesn’t know anyone named Clare, then she becomes anxious: “But it couldn’t be her. I hadn’t seen her for ten years” (6). Nora opens the email and finds an invitation to Clare’s “hen do” (what Americans call a bachelorette party). Flo, the host, explains that she is Clare’s best friend from university. Flo specifies that she will hold the party over a weekend in Northumberland, near where she and Clare attended university.

Nora does not know what to make of this message and looks to the list of other recipients. She recognizes only one other name, that of her friend Nina da Souza. Nora determines that this must mean that the bride is Clare Cavendish, with whom she had been friends “in school” (which refers to elementary and high school) in Reading. Bewildered, Nora doesn’t understand why Clare would want her at her hen party and sends an email to her friend Nina, asking if she is going.

While she waits a few days for Nina’s reply, Nora goes about her usual routine. However, the email invitation “was a constant distracting presence in the back of [her] mind” (9). Finally, after days of working late shifts at her hospital, Nina replies. She emphasizes that she does not want to attend the hen do but will if Nora does. Nina writes that she received the wedding invitation but hoped to avoid the hen do.

This reply confuses Nora, as she wonders why Flo would invite her to Clare’s hen do when Clare has not extended a wedding invitation to Nora. Nora, awkward about admitting her ignorance of the situation, decides against asking Nina whom Clare is marrying.

Clare then receives another email from Flo, calling her “Lee” and imploring her to come to the party. Flo maintains that Clare specifically asked for Nora’s presence at the weekend event. Rather than feeling flattered that Clare strongly wants her to attend, Nora feels resentment. She thinks about how she swore never to contact anyone from her past, including Clare, who had once been her best friend. Nora looks up Clare on Facebook to see whom she is marrying but does not recognize the groom, William Pilgrim, by name. Nora thinks back to her relationship with Clare and how special Clare had been to her: “Remembering the way she could make you feel like a million dollars, just by picking you out of a crowded room” (12). Nora thinks of the kindness Clare showed her when they were children.

Nora receives another email from Nina, asking if she is going to the hen do. Nora reluctantly tells Nina that she will go. Nina later replies that she is surprised but glad that Nora is going and jokingly threatens her not to back out. Nora sends Flo an email accepting the invitation.

Nora feels anxious as the date of the hen do approaches. Nina and Nora take the train and then a rental car to the party location, chatting as they go. Nora continues to wonder why Clare wants her at this party and reasons that if Clare intends to rekindle their friendship, then she would have invited her to the wedding as well.

They travel further onto country lanes, entering a forest and unpaved track, where they find they have no cell phone reception. Nora has printed out instructions, so they follow those to the Glass House, the summer house Flo’s aunt owns. Nora thinks she sees Clare waiting for them in the doorway, although the woman is much heavier than the Clare she remembers: “Then she spoke and the illusion was broken” (21). Flo greets Nina, then Nora, calling her “Lee.” Nora reflexively corrects her, explaining that she no longer goes by her school nickname. Nora senses that something is off with Flo but can’t place why.

Nina breaks the silence by facetiously asking what “hideous tortures” Flo has in store for them during the weekend and, in a deadpan tone, says that she is allergic to “feather boas” and “chocolate penises” (22). Nora quickly explains that Nina is joking. Flo leads them through the house, which Nora finds strangely exposed with all its uncovered glass. The sight of a shotgun above the mantle startles Nora. Flo takes them upstairs, where Nora and Nina will share a bedroom. Flo and Clare will share another, and Tom and Melanie will each have their own room. Melanie has a young baby, and Flo thought she would appreciate her own space. Likewise, Flo thought Tom, as a man, should have his own room.

Flo leaves Nina and Nora to relax. They both wonder why Clare has included them in the hen do, with Nina adding that she has not seen Clare in three years. Nora is about to confess to Nina that she does not know whom Clare is marrying, but a knock on the front door interrupts her.

Nora is nervous about seeing Clare and is relieved to see Tom and Melanie arrive instead. Nora and Nina go down to meet them. Melanie’s phone distracts her, and she apologizes, saying that it is the first time she’s been away from her 6-month-old baby. Flo leads her to the living room to use the landline. Nora awkwardly asks Tom how he knows Clare. Tom replies that they met through his husband, who is a director. Tom explains that he is a playwright.

Nina comments that Nora is a writer as well, and Tom focuses on Nora. They chat about writing, and Nora realizes that he was in Clare’s Facebook profile picture. This makes her wonder anew about the identity of Clare’s husband-to-be. Melanie returns from using the landline phone, and Flo calls them all into the living room for tea.

The shotgun over the fireplace also disturbs Tom. Flo comments that her aunt keeps it loaded with blanks to scare off rabbits. Nora asks if there is coffee as well as tea, but Flo says there is not. Flo apologizes, saying that she only thought of what Clare would like during the weekend, and Clare loves tea.

Flo tells them what she has planned for the evening and asks them all to introduce themselves. Nora narrates: “For the first time I tried to fit Tom, Melanie, and Flo in with the Clare I knew, and it wasn’t entirely easy” (35). Melanie, a lawyer on maternity leave, introduces herself as Clare and Flo’s friend from university. Tom asks to see pictures of her baby, and she brings out her phone. Nora looks away as Melanie happily describes the pictures and motherhood. Nina, a doctor training to be a surgeon, introduces herself as Clare’s friend from school. She details her recent return from Columbia, where she was working with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Tom introduces himself next, saying that he knows Clare through their work with the Royal Theatre Company.

When Tom asks Nora about herself, she feels flush and forces herself to speak. She says she met Clare at school, but they lost touch. Tom looks at Nora strangely: “Was it my imagination, or was there something slightly malicious in his gaze? Did he know something?” (42). Tom unwittingly comments how nice it is that the school friends have all kept in contact. Nora, knowing the truth, feels uncomfortable at his remark.

Flo enthusiastically introduces herself, saying that she met Clare at their university, and they have been best friends ever since. Flo comments that Clare helped her through a difficult time when she had to take time off from her studies. Flo’s eyes tear up as she relates, “She’s my rock and I’d do anything for her. I just want her to have the best hen night ever. I want it to be perfect. It means everything to me” (43). Her fervor and tears startle the others, except for Melanie.

When Flo goes to the kitchen, Nina comments on Flo’s intensity. Melanie quietly tells them that Flo had a breakdown in her third year of university, though she does not know the details. Nina and Nora both find Flo’s dedication to Clare and manner “unnerving” (44).