Pat Richmond’s rape of Tully Hart is a defining violation that exposes the gulf between the romance she hopes for and the coercion Pat imposes. At a country bonfire party, Tully’s anticipation of love gives way to assault; afterward, she reaches home alone, then tells Kate Mularkey what happened and is met not with blame but with an embrace. The event’s significance lies both in the violence itself and in the fragile beginning of Tully’s ability to speak about it to someone who stays beside her.

The party and the promise of romance

In late May, Pat drives Tully in his green Dodge Charger to a party in a pasture. Dozens of cars form a circle with their headlights on, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business” plays as teenagers gather by a bonfire and kegs. Pat leads Tully through the crowd and pours them drinks. The setting is noisy and social, but their later encounter takes place apart from the gathering, by trees and wet grass.

Tully approaches the evening through romantic expectations. She imagines Pat saying he loves her, pictures their relationship as a love story, and even envisions “Stairway to Heaven” as their song. She wants love, tenderness, and the feeling that she matters. That imagined future makes the change in the encounter especially stark: Pat’s initial kiss gives way to a forceful one that no longer feels right, and Tully tries to say stop but cannot make her voice heard.

The assault

Pat ignores Tully’s resistance and moves from kissing her to pulling at her clothing. When she says no and tells him not to, he insists that she wants it, pushes her down, and pins both her hands with one of his. He then assaults her while she cries. Her experience is described through pain and physical helplessness, in direct contrast to the romance and affection she had imagined.

Afterward, Pat acts as though the assault were consensual intimacy. He smooths Tully’s hair, notices that she is crying, and asks what is wrong because he thought she wanted it. Tully is left disbelieving and unable to make his account fit what she has just experienced. Pat’s response compounds the violation: rather than acknowledging her refusal or distress, he treats her tears as a puzzling interruption and invites her to dance.

The walk home and disclosure

Tully dresses slowly and tries to stand, only to become sick and vomit over her favorite shoes. She clutches her purse and makes her way back to the road alone. It is late enough that no cars pass, a fact she is glad of because she does not want to explain her disheveled hair and stained shoes. On the walk, she replays the contrast between the Pat who had smiled, offered a gentle first kiss, and spoken as if she mattered, and the Pat who forced himself on her.

When Kate asks whether she is okay, Tully initially stiffens and then begins to cry. Kate says nothing at first, but hugs her. The contact feels unfamiliar to Tully; she starts to pull away, then finds herself clinging to Kate, afraid of losing the comfort. Later, Tully looks out over the field, takes a steadying breath, and tells Kate, “He raped me.” She is ashamed and fears seeing judgment in Kate’s face. Instead, Kate quietly asks if she is okay and hugs her again. Tully allows herself to be comforted, then tries to lighten the moment by saying that she is drowning Kate.

Kate suggests telling someone. Tully refuses, fearing that others would say the assault was her fault, and asks Kate to keep it secret. The exchange establishes both the isolation surrounding her disclosure and the importance of Kate’s response: Tully can name what happened to one trusted friend, but she is not ready to make it public.

Aftermath and lasting significance

The account connects the assault to Tully’s longing to be loved, without treating that longing as consent or responsibility for Pat’s actions. Her hopes for tenderness are not what causes the violence; Pat’s disregard of her refusal does. The scene’s movement from imagined declarations of love to physical coercion makes that distinction central to its meaning.

Kate’s embrace offers immediate care but does not erase the trauma or resolve Tully’s fear of blame. The importance of the disclosure is repeated in their friendship: after Kate has been away, Tully tells her that Cloud, Gran, and God are all people she is angry with, then reveals that Gran died. Kate holds her while she sobs. The later moment echoes the earlier pattern of Tully entrusting painful truths to Kate and Kate answering with presence and comfort.

The assault also remains part of the friendship’s later history of care. When Kate is gravely ill, Tully insists on staying beside her in the ambulance, repeating that she is right there. During Kate’s final hospital stay, after leaving her television broadcast to be with her family, Tully takes the other bed in Kate’s room and watches a recording of her last show with her. These later scenes do not equate illness with assault; they show how the friendship formed through acts of listening and staying present continues to shape their lives. The event’s lasting narrative force is therefore twofold: it marks a profound breach of Tully’s bodily autonomy, and it becomes one of the painful truths she is able to share within a friendship that gives her a witness.