Rab

Rab is Mae’s companion and Sarah’s caretaker after Mae dies, a bereaved, financially precarious man whose promise to look after the girl cannot withstand his own limitations. His decision to hand Sarah to a stranger sets in motion her separation from the only family she has left and becomes a defining source of her later memories of abandonment.

Identity and Care for Sarah

After Mae falls ill and dies, Rab remains Sarah’s guardian. Mae entrusts her daughter to him, and Rab is visibly overcome by grief at her death. Sarah, who has no tears at first, lies beside her mother and begs her to wake; Rab eventually lifts her away from the bed. When he says Mae is free from unhappiness, Sarah interprets this as freedom from herself, deepening the belief that she is to blame for her mother’s sorrow and death.

Rab’s care is genuine but fragile. After drinking, he collapses, and Sarah covers him with a blanket and tells him she will take care of him. The reversal leaves the child trying to comfort the adult who is supposed to protect her. The next morning Rab is remorseful and says he must keep his promise to Mae, but he has little money, needs another drink, and has only a can of beans in the cupboard, which he shares with Sarah.

The Promise and the Handover

Unable to see how to provide for Sarah, Rab goes out to speak with acquaintances. He later returns with a stranger who says he works for a man seeking to adopt a little girl. Sarah does not understand the arrangement and instinctively tries to hide behind Rab. Instead, Rab holds her in front of the stranger, who inspects her and comments on her appearance.

When Rab returns the following day, he is again drunk and has no coins. He tells Sarah that this is their parting, and she hugs him, pleading that he keep her and be her father. Rab loosens her embrace and says he has enough problems already. The scene makes the transfer a sharp reversal: Sarah reaches for continued family belonging, while Rab yields to the arrangement that takes her away.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

Sarah’s memories of Rab remain bound to the loss of Mae and to the night when her childhood security ended. As an adult, she tries to suppress these memories, preferring numbness to the pain of recalling them. Rain brings back thoughts of the shack, her mother, and Rab; memories of Rab lead on to Duke and the other people who harmed her. In another recollection, Sarah cannot bring herself to tell Michael what happened to Rab, identifying the episode only as something from her childhood.

Rab therefore occupies a consequential but limited place in Sarah’s history: he is both the person Mae trusted with her and the guardian who ultimately gives her up. His grief and remorse do not undo the abandonment, and his inability to protect Sarah helps establish the pattern of broken attachment from which her later fear and distrust grow.