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Missing in Action
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in When Will There Be Good News?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past
Appearances vs. Reality
Lies and Deceptions
Family
Summary
Analysis
Reggie arrives at the Hunters’ and asks to take Sadie for a walk. Mr. Hunter is unshaven, hoarse, and smells of cigarettes. When Reggie asks, he claims he’s been talking to Dr. Hunter on her phone, whereas Reggie hasn’t been able to reach her at all. He tells Reggie that Joanna doesn’t want to be bothered.
As soon as she arrives at her second home—after the destruction of her flat, her only home—Reggie finds things off kilter. Mr. Hunter appears to be hiding something, and Dr. Hunter, the most stable person in Reggie’s life, is nowhere to be found.
Themes
After fleeting her destroyed flat, Reggie had bought a whole new set of clothes at Topshop. Then she’d gone to the hospital, as the police had requested, and looked at Ms. MacDonald’s bruised and swollen face through a window, confirming her identity. She leaves her number so that they can inform her when “the body is released.” Reggie feels like a child and wonders if she can really be responsible for a dead body, but she doesn’t object.
Reggie has no stable place to land at this moment. Her belongings have been trashed, and another of the only trustworthy adults in her life is now dead. Because Ms. MacDonald doesn’t have anyone else, Reggie is forced to deal with the aftermath. She doesn’t feel up to the task, but she also knows what it’s like to be alone in the world, so she can’t refuse.
Themes
Mr. Hunter reluctantly allows Reggie to leave her heavy Topshop bag, pays her wages (he gives her half of what Dr. Hunter pays), and lets her take Sadie. When Reggie goes into the garage in search of Sadie’s ball, she sees that Dr. Hunter’s Prius is sitting there. Mr. Hunter had specified that Joanna drove to Hawes the day before. So what was her car doing there?
Even if Mr. Hunter means no ill toward Reggie, he clearly isn’t as attentive and generous toward her as Dr. Hunter always was. Meanwhile, Reggie continues to pick up clues that there’s more to Dr. Hunter’s sudden departure than Mr. Hunter had let on.
Themes
When Reggie gets back to the house, she finds a note from Mr. Hunter, saying that “Jo” had suggested that Reggie take Sadie home with her for a few days. Before leaving, Reggie goes upstairs and peeks in Dr. Hunter’s room. Reggie is surprised to see that, out of character, Dr. Hunter’s usual work suit isn’t hanging in the closet, suggesting that she hadn’t changed before her trip. She tries dialing Dr. Hunter again and is sure she hears her mobile’s ringtone—it’s ringing downstairs. Before she can investigate this, Mr. Hunter bursts back into the house, surprised to find her still there. She nonchalantly leaves the house with Sadie in tow, then is shocked to notice what Sadie is carrying—the baby’s beloved scrap of blanket. It has an unmistakable bloodstain on it.
Reggie knows Dr. Hunter’s routine so well that she observes what’s missing in the closet, knows Dr. Hunter’s ringtone, and recognizes the baby’s beloved blanket—the latter detail being the most alarming. Just as she’s protective of the little scraps of her own life—like Ms. MacDonald’s Loeb Classics collection—Reggie recognizes the rhythms of her loved ones’ lives and the things they cherish. So when those things aren’t as they should be, she knows all isn’t well.
Themes
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Reggie starts walking toward Dr. Hunter’s surgery with Sadie. Tired from the bags she’s carrying, she eventually coaxes Sadie onto a bus. When they reach the surgery, she leaves Sadie outside and inquires at reception. The receptionist refuses to give her any information about Dr. Hunter. On the way out, though, she bumps into Dr. Hunter’s friend, Sheila, a midwife. Sheila remembers Reggie and asks if everything is okay with her. She hasn’t been able to reach Dr. Hunter, either, but figures that the sick aunt explains everything. Reggie takes out the scrap of blanket and thinks, “It belonged with the baby. The baby belonged with Dr. Hunter […] Reggie belonged with Dr. Hunter. It was all wrong.”
Reggie finally finds a sympathetic ear in Dr. Hunter’s friend, Sheila, but she, too, accepts the situation at face value. Reggie, though, knows that the abandoned scrap of blanket symbolizes something worse. She also sees herself as “belonging” with Dr. Hunter much as the baby’s blanket belonged with him. She feels a visceral bond with the two of them, and their absence shakes up her world even more than the train crash and the break-in at her flat have done.
Themes
