Meeting House

The Meeting House, formally the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), is a large, square-shaped building in Toronto that functions as a crucial node in the Underground Femaleroad. It is here that Ada brings Daisy (Nicole) immediately after the car bomb that kills Neil and Melanie, marking the girl's first step into the clandestine world of Mayday and the refugee crisis.

Safe House and Transit Hub

Ada parks her car at the back of the Meeting House beside a grey van, which she identifies as their next ride. They enter through a side door, where Ada nods to a man named Elijah sitting at a small desk. Inside, the building has an "empty hush" and a "slightly chilly smell." Beyond the main meeting space is a larger, brighter, air-conditioned room containing a row of cots with women lying on them, covered in blankets of different colors. In another corner, five armchairs and a coffee table are occupied by women talking in low voices. Ada instructs Daisy not to stare, telling her "It's not a zoo."

SanctuCare and the Refugee Experience

Ada explains that the Meeting House houses SanctuCare, the Gilead refugee organization. Melanie worked with it, and Neil did in a different way. Ada tells Daisy to sit in a chair and be a "fly on the wall," promising she will be safe there. A woman in charge brings Daisy a cup of hot sweet tea and a chocolate-chip cookie, and tucks a green-and-blue blanket around her. From her seat, Daisy watches several women arrive, some with babies, who look "really wrecked, and also scared." The SanctuCare women welcome them, saying "You're here now, it's all right," at which point the Gilead women begin to cry. Daisy overhears fragments of their desperate stories: "If they say I have to go back…" and "I had to leave my boy behind, isn't there any way to…" and "I lost the baby. There was no one…" The women in charge hand them tissues and say calm things like "You need to be strong."

Transformation and Departure

After about an hour, Ada returns and tells Daisy she must "dump the plaid" and get different clothes. They go to a back room with a table of T-shirts and sweaters and racks with hangers, where Daisy recognizes items from The Clothes Hound donations. Ada instructs her to pick something she would never wear in real life to look like a totally different person. Daisy chooses a black T-shirt with a white skull, black leggings with white skulls, and black-and-white high-tops. Ada also changes her own appearance, putting on a green jacket and sunglasses, and gives Daisy orange mirror sunglasses and a lipstick to make a "new red mouth." Ada tells her to "Look like a thug," and Daisy tries to scowl and pout. Ada declares, "There. You'd never know. Our secret is safe with us." The Meeting House thus serves as the liminal space where Daisy's old identity is shed and her new, disguised one is assumed, before she is moved to the next safe house at Carnarvon.