Nan
Forever...Nan is Katherine’s fellow staff member and companion at camp, appearing in moments that link the routines of summer life to Katherine’s private emotional upheavals. She joins Katherine and Theo on an outing, figures in Katherine’s conflicted hopes about the two of them, and walks with Katherine to the camp office when a late-night call brings troubling news.
Identity and Camp Life
Nan shares the camp’s demanding schedule, in which staff members receive two short nights off and one long night off each week. A long night lets them leave after supper and stay away from evening activities until the following morning. When Theo offers to drive Nan and Katherine to Laconia to see a movie, the two accept; his car makes the outing possible because neither of them has one.
Nan’s presence in this small group shapes Katherine’s effort to manage the seating arrangement. Katherine tries to sit beside Nan, with Nan between her and Theo, but Theo takes the middle seat, joking that it is only fair because he is the only guy. He puts an arm around each woman, an action Katherine understands as a joke. The casual closeness captures how quickly campmates can become familiar when they spend their days and nights together.
Dancing and Katherine’s Conflicted Feelings
At the camp canteen, open every night from eight to ten, campers listen to music, dance, and get snacks. Nan does not dance, saying she has two left feet. Katherine sees this as a complication because dancing might bring two people together, and she wishes Theo would look at Nan as he looks at her. That wish sits alongside Katherine’s own involuntary response when their eyes meet, exposing a tension between the match she imagines for Nan and the attraction she feels herself.
The tension deepens after the movie outing. Katherine dreams of being sexually intimate with Theo and wakes ashamed by how vivid and powerful the dream felt. She writes Michael a four-page letter the next day to keep her thoughts focused on him, and tries to stay away from Theo; even so, she senses that something is growing between them. Nan is part of the social triangle around that unspoken attraction, but the account does not suggest that she knows about Katherine’s dream or feelings.
Companionship in a Moment of Loss
On the following Sunday night, Katherine is in the retreat answering Erica’s letter when a phone call summons her to the office at 10:30. Nan walks with her there, where Katherine discovers that her mother is on the line. The account does not specify Nan’s role in the call itself, but her presence accompanies Katherine as the evening turns abruptly from camp routine to family crisis.
After learning of Grandpa’s death, Katherine tells Nan what has happened and says she needs to be alone for a while. She then goes down to the lake and sits on her rock, remembering Grandpa’s play with her as a child, his read-aloud voices, his presence in the kitchen, and his reaching for her hand in the hospital after his first stroke. Nan’s importance in this passage is understated: she is the person Katherine tells before withdrawing to grieve, a companion at the threshold between sharing the news and seeking solitude.
