Katherine and Nan's friendship

Katherine and Nan's friendship gives Katherine a companion through the routines and emotional upheavals of camp. It appears less through declarations than through small acts of company: accepting a ride together, sharing the confidences Katherine offers, and walking beside her when a late-night call interrupts an ordinary evening. As Katherine’s feelings about Michael, Theo, and her family shift, Nan remains a familiar presence amid the change.

Companionship at Camp

When Theo invites Katherine and Nan to go into Laconia to see a movie, they accept because he has a car and they do not. Katherine tries to arrange the seating so she can sit beside Nan, with Nan between her and Theo. Theo instead takes the middle seat, explaining the arrangement as fair because he is the only man, and puts an arm around each of them as a joke. The episode places the friendship in the ordinary sociability of camp: the three travel together, but Katherine is already attentive to how the group’s physical arrangement might bring her closer to Theo or keep her beside Nan.

Nan’s habits and preferences also shape Katherine’s view of camp life. At the nightly canteen, where campers listen to music, dance, and get snacks, Nan does not dance, saying that she has two left feet. Katherine regards dancing as a possible way for two people to draw closer and wishes Theo would look at Nan as he looks at her. That thought makes Nan more than a bystander in Katherine’s romantic uncertainty: she is the friend whose wishes Katherine considers even while recognizing that her own attraction to Theo complicates the friendship’s social setting. The text does not present Nan as competing with Katherine; instead, Katherine’s concern about how Theo treats her reveals how closely she watches the feelings and possibilities around her friend.

Confidence and Reassurance

Katherine’s private conflict over Theo does not prevent her from seeking reassurance through Nan. After receiving a long letter from Michael, she kisses it and shows it to Nan as proof that she is not interested in anyone else. The gesture has a double edge: Katherine presents visible evidence of her commitment to Michael, while the need to demonstrate it suggests that her feelings have become difficult to settle privately. Nan is the person to whom she makes that small declaration, and the letter becomes a concrete object through which Katherine tries to affirm where her loyalties lie.

Their closeness is also evident in a quieter interruption. One Sunday night, Katherine is in the retreat answering a letter from Erica when a staff member tells her that there is a phone call. It is 10:30, late enough to make her wonder who would be calling. Nan walks with her to the office. The account gives no speech or dramatic intervention from Nan; the support is simply that Katherine does not make the walk alone. This practical gesture complements the more emotionally charged moments in which Katherine turns to her, showing friendship as both ordinary company and availability at a moment of uncertainty.

Presence During Grief

After Katherine learns that her grandfather has died, she tells Nan what has happened and says that she needs to be alone for a while. She goes down to the lake and sits on her rock, remembering her grandfather’s play with her as a child, his reading aloud in different voices, and his presence in family life. Nan’s role here is not to interrupt Katherine’s solitude or direct her grief. Katherine first tells her, then chooses to withdraw; the friendship accommodates both disclosure and the need for space.

Nan also becomes the link through which Theo learns of the loss. When he appears beside Katherine at the lake, he says that Nan told him and expresses sympathy. The disclosure brings Theo into the scene, but it begins with Nan’s knowledge of what Katherine is going through. The evidence does not explain what Nan said or why she chose to tell him; it does establish that Katherine’s loss is known within her close camp circle, and that Nan’s presence helps connect her to another person offering comfort. The sequence distinguishes the friends’ roles: Katherine confides in Nan, while Theo sits beside her as she cries.

The Shape of the Friendship

Across these episodes, Nan is a companion rather than a solver of Katherine’s problems. She shares a movie outing, is present during the routines of camp, receives Katherine’s attempt to reassure herself about Michael, accompanies her to the office, and hears about her grandfather’s death. These actions offer different kinds of closeness, from casual leisure to the practical witnessing of a difficult moment. The friendship is conveyed through recurrence and proximity, not through an account of its origins or through a single defining conversation.

Nan’s place in Katherine’s life also clarifies the social texture of Katherine’s summer. Katherine’s emotional attention is divided between loyalty to Michael and attraction to Theo, yet she continues to think about Nan’s position and to seek her company. When grief arrives, that relationship provides a first point of disclosure without requiring Katherine to give up solitude. Nan’s friendship therefore functions as a steady strand in a period of uncertainty: not a resolution to Katherine’s romantic conflict or bereavement, but a reliable human connection through which those experiences are shared.