The Memory Keeper’s Daughter: Chapter 12: August 1977 Summary & Analysis

David hurries into Paul’s school from work—he is “very late” for Paul’s concert. He enters the auditorium and an attendant hands him a program—they are on performance number five, and Paul is number seven. David hurries to the front of the theater to sit with Norah, who chides him for being late. Even though David was in surgery, Norah is visibly angry. David tells her she’s been short with him “ever since Aruba.” A man puts his hand on David’s shoulder and asks him and Norah to be quiet so he can hear his son, Duke, play. David watches the boy on stage—Paul’s best friend—play the piano.

David thinks back to Aruba, and remembers discovering Norah’s discarded clothes on the beach. His and Paul’s fishing trip was canceled that morning, and they headed back to the bungalow. Paul went out for a run but came back upset—David went out for a walk, saw Norah’s clothes on the beach in front of Howard’s cottage, and realized that Paul must have seen them, too. David was upset, but not unsurprised—he knew for years that the secret in the “middle of their family” would tear him and Norah apart eventually.

Duke’s performance ends, and Paul walks out onstage with his guitar. He begins playing a classical piece, and David is moved by the familiar music, amazed by the young man—talented but inscrutable—Paul is growing up to be. David thinks of his sister June, and her talent with music—she was a skilled singer. He feels a pang of grief, and tries to push his feelings away. After the performance is over, Norah and David applaud. Norah leans over to David and tells him Paul deserves to go to Juilliard, like he wants to. David insists, though, that Paul is, at thirteen, “too young to shut doors” to other opportunities.

After the concert, David and Norah congratulate Paul. Paul, though, is standoffish, and rebuffs his parents’ attention—especially Norah’s. Norah suggests they go home, have dinner, and celebrate with Bree, but Paul insists he wants to go home and be alone. Back at the house, when Paul goes straight up to his bedroom, Norah says she’s going to go up and talk to him, but David insists on being the one to do it. When David enters Paul’s room, though, he finds it empty—Paul has snuck out the window.

David goes downstairs and tells Norah that Paul has snuck out—most likely to hang out with Duke. They call Duke’s parents, who give them the address of a post-show party, and David grabs the car keys. Norah insists on accompanying him, but David says that Paul probably doesn’t want to talk to her right now—and watches a sad look pass over her face as she understands why.

David catches up with Paul a block before the house where the party’s being held, and orders Paul to get in the car. Paul reluctantly obliges. The two drive in silence for a minute, but then David tells Paul how proud he is of him. He asks Paul if he’s sure he wants to go to Juilliard, and reminds him there are many other things he could do in life. Paul, though, insists that music is the only thing makes him “feel alive”—and he is not going to walk away from it and end up miserable like his parents.

As David and Paul arrive home, David asks Paul to come with him into his darkroom. There, he shows Paul some of his photographs—and explains that he understands how deeply Paul loves music, because that’s how much he loves taking pictures. David says he loves photography because he loves that it’s “all about secrets”—Paul balks and retorts that music is about the opposite: connection. He walks out of the darkroom, leaving David alone.

David opens the refrigerator where he keeps his chemicals and reaches into the back, pulling out a fat envelope full of cash. Though usually he mails money to Caroline wrapped in a blank sheet of paper, tonight, he sits down and begins composing a letter to her, pouring out his “regrets about the past” and his “hopes for Phoebe.” He can’t stop thinking about the loneliness he sees Paul carrying—and wonders if things would be different if he’d grown up with Phoebe. David writes in his letter that he wants to at last have a relationship with Phoebe—because of Paul. He seals and stamps the envelope, and plans on mailing it tomorrow. 

Unable to get thoughts of Aruba out of his head, David begins developing some of the pictures he took there. In one picture, from the night of their dinner party with Howard, he sees that he captured a moment between Norah and Howard in which they were laughing and smiling at one another. He hangs the picture on a clothesline to dry, planning on leaving it exposed and untreated until it darkens and obscures itself.