Ohio

Ohio is the shared origin that brings Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen into unexpected recognition, but its importance grows beyond the coincidence of their hometowns. Through memories of family, school, and the prospect of returning to Linfield, Ohio becomes a measure of how their idea of home changes: from a place each came from to a place they might choose together.

Linfield and the first recognition

Poppy and Alex meet during campus orientation, after several hours of tours and panels have given them little in common beyond their mutual dislike of each other’s clothes. When Alex says he is from West Linfield, Ohio, Poppy is stunned to learn that she comes from East Linfield. Their towns share a name and a state, though Poppy initially regards the connection as unremarkable, more like having had the same cold than having discovered a reason to celebrate. Alex brightens at the news anyway. The small difference in their reactions gives the coincidence its character: Ohio is not an instant bond, but it offers a first point of recognition between two strangers.

Poppy gives Alex her name after this exchange. That introduction places their future friendship between adjacent hometowns from the start, while leaving the towns distinct. West Linfield is Alex’s origin and East Linfield is Poppy’s; their shared Ohio background does not erase the different experiences each associates with home.

Family and the difficult parts of home

Poppy’s memories of her family complicate any simple account of Ohio as a place of belonging. Her father is brawny, loud, and given to blunt questions, while her mother is similarly unrestrained in her enthusiasm. Poppy recalls how, when Alex first came to her parents’ house before a karaoke night in their first summer of friendship, she tried to shield him from both her family and their home. After their first road trip home, she understood that the small, crowded house—with its knickknacks, dusty picture frames, and dog dander—could unsettle Alex. Yet she feared his judgment as much as she feared his discomfort. Her family could seem messy, strange, and loud to visitors, but Poppy knew that they were also wonderful; the problem was that outsiders might see only what was in front of them.

School is another part of Poppy’s Ohio past that remains difficult to revisit. When Alex suggests that she come to his class at East Linfield High School, she says she would not go there even if every tractor within five miles dragged her in. Alex points out that her bullies have probably graduated, but Poppy refuses to treat that as certain. The exchange makes clear that time passing has not made the prospect of returning to the school easy. Ohio holds affection and family attachment for her, but it also holds memories of bullying and social isolation.

A home place among changing settings

The novel places Ohio among a succession of travel destinations and temporary settings, without making them interchangeable. In Palm Springs, Poppy and Alex arrive at the Desert Rose Apartment Complex, a bubblegum-pink stucco building with a cactus garden, a white picket fence, and a teal pool. Their rental is a studio: one open room with no door apart from the bathroom. That arrangement sharpens their awkwardness as they negotiate changing for the pool, and makes the trip’s temporary closeness feel different from the familiar, complicated places each associates with home.

New York City later becomes part of Poppy and Alex’s ordinary shared life rather than another brief stop. After a tour, they slip away to Cafe Lalo, hoping to sit where the characters in You’ve Got Mail did. The cold and the spring blossoms give the outing the ease of a vacation, but Alex has been living in the city full-time for five months, working as a long-term substitute teacher. Their life there includes writing, lesson planning, grading, laundry, dishes, taxes, dentist appointments, and lost MetroCards. The contrast matters: a city can feel like a holiday, yet its routines make it a home they inhabit rather than leave behind at the end of a trip.

The imagined return to Linfield

Ohio reappears as a place the couple plans to revisit after their travels. They imagine spending four days in Norway and four in Sweden, then flying directly back to Linfield for the rest of Alex’s summer break. There, they will stay in Betty’s house while Alex fixes it up. Poppy imagines sitting on the floor eating Twizzlers and finding new ways to make him blush as they remove wallpaper and choose paint colors. The return is not simply a visit to old surroundings: it involves working on a house and trying out the hometown as a possible setting for their life together.

The imagined stay also brings their families into the same future. They will have diet soda at dinner with Alex’s father and brothers, and sit with Poppy’s parents on the porch overlooking the remains of the Wright family’s old cars. Earlier, Alex’s account of his family has shown a father who once reacted tearfully to his son’s plan to attend a secular university, but who ultimately came around on matters affecting his sons’ happiness. His brother David’s marriage to Tham is another part of the family life Poppy is invited into. These details make the return to Linfield more than a choice of setting: it means entering the ordinary, sometimes complicated circles of family that their travel life can set aside.

Poppy and Alex imagine trying on Linfield in the same way they have tried on New York, seeing how it fits and where they want to be. The comparison leaves the future open; their plans do not establish that Ohio will be their permanent home. What Poppy does know is that wherever Alex is will be her favorite place. Ohio therefore matters not as a guaranteed destination, but as one possible home whose meaning depends on the life and relationship they bring to it.