Erica Small

Erica Small is Katherine's close friend and a keen reader of other people, known for making almost anyone feel welcome. Her instinct for understanding others does not make her responsible for saving them: after months with Artie Lewin, she ends the relationship when his suicidal threat leaves her frightened and convinced she cannot help him.

Identity and Social Perceptiveness

Erica is the friend Katherine trusts and the cousin Sybil Davison is visiting when Erica offers her interpretation of Sybil's behavior. Erica attributes Sybil's repeated sexual encounters to a weight problem and a need to feel loved, while distinguishing those motives from Sybil's high intelligence. Katherine is not certain that the explanation is entirely right, but considers Erica generally very good at analyzing people. The exchange establishes both Erica's confidence in interpreting motives and Katherine's more qualified trust in that confidence.

That social intelligence also appears in Erica's everyday manner. Katherine says she never has to worry about Erica getting along with anyone: even when paired with a seemingly unsuitable man, Erica finds something to discuss and treats him as special. He is likely to call and ask to see her again, though her friendliness does not mean she will make out with him. Her ease with people is thus a practiced capacity for conversation and attention, not a promise of romantic interest.

Friendship with Katherine

Erica and Katherine decide at the last minute to attend Sybil's party, partly because Sybil invited them then and partly because they have nothing better to do. The casual decision places Erica within Katherine's close social circle, while their friendship also gives Katherine a firsthand view of Erica's judgments and emotional life. Later, when Erica is overwhelmed by Artie's crisis, she comes downstairs to get Katherine and Michael Wagner, treating them as people she can turn to for help.

Relationship with Artie Lewin

When Katherine and Michael invite friends over, Katherine asks Erica to join them and thinks Artie, whom Michael brings, is a particularly good match for her. Artie is her height, well-built, and has the good teeth Erica likes. Katherine's matchmaking view reflects her attention to Erica's preferences, but the later course of Erica and Artie's relationship exposes a difficulty that appearance and compatibility cannot solve.

After nearly five months with Artie, Erica decides that the night marks the end and says she will not see him again. The immediate crisis is frightening: Artie has locked himself in Erica's bathroom and threatened to kill himself. Erica is scared that he means it and says she cannot help him. Her decision follows not a lack of investment but the painful recognition that the time and care she has given him have not enabled her to keep him safe or sustain the relationship.

Crisis and Narrative Significance

Erica's distress also intersects with Katherine's private life. She runs downstairs to find Katherine and Michael, but, just as she is about to knock, hears them. The account leaves the precise content of what she hears unstated; what it makes clear is that her urgent attempt to reach her friends collides with a moment she had not expected to encounter. Katherine tries to reassure her that things will look better in the morning, but Erica cries harder, underscoring the immediacy of her fear and her conviction that the relationship is over.

Through Erica, the novel complicates the idea that perceptiveness and sociability can solve other people's problems. She can make conversation with almost anyone and offer confident explanations of their motives, yet Artie's threat confronts her with the limits of care. Her arc in the available scenes moves from the person others expect to manage social encounters smoothly to a frightened friend who acknowledges that she cannot rescue someone she has spent months trying to help.