Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: Bad Days: Chapter 35 Summary & Analysis

Eleanor starts seeing Maria Temple twice a week and gets used to talking about her childhood, though she still finds it difficult to talk about Marianne. Dr. Temple asks Eleanor to recall her happiest memory of life before the fire. Eleanor pieces together a foggy recollection of a school picnic. The picnic was happy for Eleanor because she and Marianne were both safe.

Eleanor remembers school being a safe place for her, because teachers cared and “asked about where you got your cuts and bruises.” After the happy picnic memory, Eleanor recalls, Mummy discovered that a teacher had been curious about her bruises. Mummy homeschooled them after this. Eleanor blames herself for “dragg[ing]” Marianne into this mess.

Dr. Temple observes that Eleanor mentions Marianne a lot in this memory, and Eleanor reveals that Marianne was her sister. Saying this out loud makes the memory real for Eleanor, though she isn’t yet ready to talk about what happened to Marianne. She tells Maria she’ll see her next week as Maria smiles.

Later that day, Eleanor sits on the couch watching an insipid game show with Glen and thinks about how stupid people are. The doorbell rings: it’s Keith, Sammy’s son. Eleanor invites Keith in for tea, and he reveals the reason for his visit. He’d been going through Sammy’s things when he found Sammy’s red sweater, which he offers to Eleanor as a memento. Eleanor is touched and thanks Keith, feeling grateful for the things between them that remain unsaid. After he leaves, she puts on the sweater.