Noelle Robertson

Noelle Robertson is Maribeth Robertson’s younger sister and closest confidante within their family. At thirteen, she is more openly rebellious than Maribeth and quick to notice when something is wrong; when their father sends Maribeth away during her pregnancy, Noelle’s pleading and grief reveal how much her sister has meant to her. The sisters’ separation is not resolved by an explanation or a change of heart from their father, but by their enduring attachment, which survives secrecy and distance and finds expression again when they are reunited.

Identity and Family

Noelle is thirteen when Maribeth is sixteen, and the contrast between them is apparent even before the crisis that divides the family. Maribeth is described as shy, cautious, and dutiful; Noelle, though also a good girl, is more rebellious and hungry for excitement. Her eyes light up when boys whistle, a small sign of a less cautious temperament than her older sister’s. During the argument about Maribeth’s prom dress, Noelle rolls her eyes at their father’s judgment, registering resistance where Maribeth tends toward compliance.

The sisters’ closeness is more important than that contrast. When their father orders Maribeth to leave, Noelle’s distress makes clear that Maribeth has been the person she could talk to. Their mother is too weak to stand up to their father, and their brother is described as self-absorbed; Noelle has relied on Maribeth as her listener and now fears losing her only sister. The separation therefore removes not simply a sibling from the household, but the person Noelle trusts to hear her.

The Separation

After Maribeth’s pregnancy becomes known, their father tells her that she will go away and instructs her not to tell Noelle the truth. He says that Noelle is too young to know, directing Maribeth to explain her absence as schooling. Maribeth is left with the task of leaving while also concealing why she is being sent away. When Noelle sees her packing, she realizes that something serious is happening, though she has not heard enough of the argument to understand it.

Maribeth first gives Noelle the story of a special school, supposedly because her grades have fallen. Noelle clings to her and cries, unconvinced that the explanation can account for the sudden departure. Her appeal is not a demand for details: she begs Maribeth not to leave, insists that whatever she has done cannot be unforgivable, and tells her that she loves her. The scene places Noelle’s loyalty against the household’s enforced silence. She does not know the secret, but she refuses to treat Maribeth as someone who deserves abandonment.

The sisters spend their last night together crying and clinging to one another in a narrow bed. In the morning, Maribeth holds Noelle as she cries and promises that she will not be gone long and will be home by Christmas. When their father drives Maribeth away, Noelle calls after her that she loves her. Ryan has come outside too, but says nothing and only waves. Noelle’s parting words are the family’s clearest spoken expression of the bond Maribeth is being made to leave behind.

A Bond Across Silence

The separation is maintained through concealment rather than any stated rejection between the sisters. Maribeth’s father tells her not to reveal the pregnancy to Noelle, and the family’s distance becomes especially stark when he later refuses Maribeth’s attempt to speak with her mother. During that call, Maribeth hears her mother crying and thinks she hears Noelle shouting that their father cannot do this. Noelle is not present in the conversation, but the sound of her protest reaches Maribeth through the family’s imposed silence.

Noelle’s response helps distinguish her from the authority that has sent Maribeth away. She does not control the decision or possess the power to reverse it; her resistance is an expression of attachment, not a practical means of escape. The novel thus makes the cost of the father’s decision visible through the younger sister’s helpless plea and the sisters’ shared night of grief. Maribeth leaves with the assurance that she is loved, even though she cannot tell Noelle why she is going.

Reunion and Change

After the baby is born and Maribeth has decided that the Whittakers will adopt her, the prospect of returning home remains painful. When arrangements are made for her family to collect her, Maribeth asks whether Noelle can come too. The question registers how urgently she wants the relationship restored; Noelle was the person she had grieved leaving, and she wants her included in the return.

When Maribeth finally comes home, Noelle is fourteen and has new braces. She is hysterical with emotion, and the sisters cry and hold one another tightly. Despite all that has happened, their reunion feels to them as though nothing between them has changed. This is not a return to the circumstances that existed before Maribeth’s departure: she has given birth and relinquished the baby, and the family still carries the consequences of its decisions. But the sisters recover their intimacy at once, as if the enforced absence has not cancelled their recognition of one another.

Narrative Significance

Noelle gives the novel’s account of Maribeth’s banishment an intimate counterpoint to its larger conflicts over pregnancy, family authority, and adoption. The adults determine where Maribeth will go and what she may disclose; Noelle cannot undo those choices. Yet her insistence that she loves and forgives her sister offers Maribeth a form of acceptance that is missing from their father’s response. The night they spend together and Noelle’s farewell make the separation legible as a rupture in a loving relationship, not merely a change of address.

Her later reunion with Maribeth supplies a modest but consequential resolution. Noelle does not erase the past or make the family’s decisions harmless; the novel instead shows that sisterly closeness can endure a period shaped by secrecy and distance. The movement from Noelle’s plea not to be left to the sisters’ tearful embrace gives the separation an emotional arc of its own: the bond is tested by an imposed absence and reappears, still immediate, when they meet again.