53 pages 1 hour read

Tawni O'Dell

Back Roads

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999

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Chapters 5-8

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

Harley spends the weekend trying to figure out how to get rid of the pipe in the yard, worried that Jody might hurt herself on it. They don’t have health insurance to pay for a medical emergency. He decides to cut it down to the ground and place the burned couch over it. On Monday, Harley works at Barclay’s during the day, then goes to the Mercer home to pick Jody up after dinner. The Mercers live on a piece of land Callie inherited from her grandfather.

Callie invites Harley inside and insists he eat leftover pork chops from their meal. Callie offers Harley a beer but takes it back when he admits he is only 19. The kids come inside asking for dessert, but Callie sends them out again. Callie tells Harley that she named Esme after an artist. She shows him one of the artist’s paintings in a book, and Harley reveals his art knowledge by comparing the artist to another famous painter. Callie is impressed and asks where he learned about art. Harley says he once studied some note cards from the Art Institute of Chicago that his mother inherited from her mother.