43 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Eighth Inning”
An hour along the old road, Trisha finds a rusted-out truck with broken windows. Although there is a storm building in the distance, she decides against sleeping in the cab because the dust worsens her cough. Settling on the forest floor with her pack as a pillow, she falls asleep feeling contented, but is awoken several hours later by the full force of a thunderstorm. As she stumbles toward the truck’s cab for shelter, she suddenly freezes, sensing that the God of the Lost is close by. Lightning flashes, illuminating the outline of a black-eyed, hunched figure at the edge of the road. The figure has large ears or horns, and it looks neither human nor animal-like. Screaming, Trisha jumps into the truck’s cab and hides her head. She is still in this position when she falls asleep.
In the morning, Trisha manages to convince herself that she only imagined the dark figure from the night before—that is, until she steps out of the truck and sees a perfect circle drawn in the ground around the cab. It’s as if the God of the Lost has drawn the circle to say, “she is mine…she is my property” (264).
Chapter 12 Summary: “Top of the Ninth”
Trisha walks all day under increasing heat. She knows that the God of the Lost is following her, skulking along in the woods at her right. She’s aware that her food supply is almost gone but feels too sick to care. Around four p.m. she trips over a fallen log and is unable to get back up. Lying on her side, she forces down the last of the berries and beechnuts and then tunes into WCAS, listening to the faint sounds of the Red Sox game until she falls asleep. During the fifth inning of the game, something comes to the edge of the woods to look at her, its face clouded with flies, its eyes “a complete history of nothing” (269). Before it retreats it points one claw at her, claiming her.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Bottom of the Ninth”
At some point during the night, Trisha hears a sportscaster say that the opposing team has the bases loaded with Gordon up to pitch. Gordon “looks afraid for the first time this year” (272). When Trisha wakes up, the batteries in her Walkman have died. She feels like she’s lost a friend, and cries for a while before wearily starting back down the road. Half an hour before dark, Trisha stops for the night and shouts for the God of the Lost to leave her alone. She takes off her Red Sox cap and sees Tom Gordon’s autograph has been blurred by rain and sweat, but she takes comfort in the fact that it was once there, and that she is still here.
As she sleeps, Trisha’s sickness deepens, and she wakes coughing up blood. She proceeds gingerly down the road, thinking that it will be miracle if she makes it out alive. The distant sound of a truck backfiring alerts her to the proximity of a real road. After an hour of walking in the direction of the sound, the path merges into a dirt road. Not wanting the sun shining in her eyes, Trisha turns west. This is the right decision, although she doesn’t know it. Four miles in the direction she is now walking lies New Hampshire Route 96. About 45 minutes down the new road, Trisha hears the sound of tires on pavement. As she begins to cry with relief, she hears another sound: a loud rustling and the snapping of a small tree. It’s the God of the Lost, finally done waiting for her. Slowly, Trisha turns to face it.
Chapters 11-13 Analysis
In the “late innings” of Trisha’s story, the baseball games on her Walkman are the only thing sustaining her hope and sanity. When the batteries on her Walkman die, she is distraught, having lost her connection to Tom Gordon and her escape from reality. She is very sick with what will later be revealed as double pneumonia and can barely keep going. Her physical and mental decline are mirrored by the God of the Lost getting steadily closer to her, signifying that she is very close to death. In the last few moments before her Walkman dies, Trisha sees her hero Tom Gordon looking scared for the first time ever, highlighting the gravity of her situation.
Even though she is severely ill and has lost her lifeline to the outside world, Trisha refuses to lose herself. She continues to try to stave off the God of the Lost by shouting at it. In the midst of one of her darkest moments in the woods, she comforts herself by looking at her Red Sox cap, which reminds her of her perseverance and her connection to Tom Gordon and her father.
Chapter 13 is titled “Bottom of the Ninth”. In Chapter 9, “Top of the Seventh,” Tom Gordon told Trisha that God tends to come on in the bottom of the ninth inning, implying that her rescue will occur in this chapter. Although her faith has been tested, she still hopes for a miracle as she uses the last of her energy to walk along the path. Her hopes are answered when she comes to a road frequented by truckers which intersects the bustling New Hampshire Route 66. The God that appears to Trisha at the end of this chapter, however, is not a merciful God but the God of the Lost, which finally emerges to confront her face to face. This twist simultaneously delivers on King’s foreshadowing and surprises the reader. It is time for Trisha to face her fears head-on and try to close the game.
Related Titles
By Stephen King
