The Girl on the Train: Rachel: Nine Summary & Analysis

Saturday, August 3, 2013. Rachel wakes from a dream in which she is being pursued through the woods. She can hear Cathy cleaning. Rachel has not left her room since Thursday—yet she vows that, starting tomorrow, she’ll get herself together and stop drinking. She has a voicemail from Rachel’s mother offering to give her some money and asking if she wants to meet for lunch in London. Rachel feels that she needs a drink before she calls her mother back to talk. As Rachel is about to put her phone down, she sees she has another message: it’s from Scott, left at nearly one in the morning. 

Rachel has a drink before she gets on the train to go into London. Once on the train, she sees pictures of Megan on discarded newspaper and every open iPad and computer: Megan is, as Rachel knew she would be, the girl found in the woods. Rachel closes her eyes at the signal, too sad even to look out at the houses. Just then, a man sits down beside her—the redheaded man from the Saturday of Megan’s disappearance. He greets Rachel and asks if she remembers him from a few weeks ago, even though she was “a bit wasted.” As the man spies a newspaper with Megan’s face on it, he remarks upon how sad and strange it is that the two of them were in Witney the night of her disappearance. The man asks Rachel if she remembers anything.

Suddenly, Rachel does remember something: a fist coming toward her. Rachel panics, stands up, and hurries to the other end of the carriage. She still can’t remember exactly what happened—but she is full of the same confusion and terror that she felt that night. She closes her eyes and remembers more: a blonde woman in a blue dress walking away from her. She realizes that the figure must be Anna.