The Longest Memory: Chapter 9: Lydia Summary & Analysis

Lydia recounts the day her father, Mr. Whitechapel, caught her reading with Chapel. She describes the feeling of falling in love with Chapel, as she no longer listens to the words he says but focuses only on his voice. When her father enters the room, the children jump up in surprise. Mr. Whitechapel orders Lydia out of the room, and Lydia feels scared for herself but more so for Chapel. She knows that she is in love with a slave who is three years younger than her, and that it is her fault if Chapel is in trouble.

Mr. Whitechapel reprimands Lydia for teaching Chapel to read, telling her that she has committed an injustice since Chapel will never be able to use these skills. Lydia wants to reply that the true injustice is the prohibition for slaves to be literate, but she stays quiet. After forbidding her to see Chapel again, Mr. Whitechapel surprisingly notes that slave literacy might be possible some time in the future. Excited by this prospect, Lydia imagines herself freely reading with Chapel, but her father then adds that it would not happen before the next century, thus crushing Lydia’s hopes for the present. She concludes that she needs to learn to live in this present, unfair world instead of dreaming of an improbable future.

One day, when Lydia is dreaming of Chapel, Cook enters the reading room and gives the young girl a cryptic message about someone waiting for her at night, in the dark, under stars that flicker when she looks at them. Lydia understands that Cook is telling her that she can meet Chapel secretly at night. After her parents go to bed, the young girl walks out and reaches an old shed, where she believes she is alone. However, she leans back and touches a body that asks her if she truly believes that stars flicker. She recognizes Chapel’s shaky voice.

Lydia asks Chapel what he would wish for if he saw a shooting star, but he refuses to reveal his thought, explaining that Whitechapel has told him that a wish will not come true if it is revealed to someone who is a part of it. Lydia notes that Whitechapel is right, and Chapel proudly says that his father is always right, which makes Lydia feel that he is prouder of his father than she is of hers.

The two of them agree to meet on clear nights and, to avoid disobeying Mr. Whitechapel, Chapel says that he will compose lines in his mind, which Lydia can write down later, while she should memorize lines for him. Lydia has tears in her eyes as she thinks of everything she wants to memorize for Chapel.

Finally, the two of them part after telling each other they love each other. Chapel tells Lydia not to turn around, so that he will not disobey Mr. Whitechapel, who has told him never to see her again. For the next months, the two of them meet on clear nights. Sometimes, when Lydia leaves the house when it is pitch dark and Chapel has not come out, she still imagines that she can smell Chapel and thinks to herself that he must have been there a few minutes earlier.