Mardi 29 octobre

Mardi 29 octobre is marked at 16:34, when Dorcas Peters finds Shelby Anderson Barnum sitting alone on a lakeside pier in Forêt d'Ellensburg. The date frames one of the novel’s pivotal conversations: Shelby tells Dorcas that she was raped two years earlier and describes some of the lasting consequences. The scene is not the assault itself, but a moment when a painful experience that Shelby has carried in silence becomes something she can tell another person.

The search and the setting

Dorcas has not seen Shelby all day. She asks Namjoon whether he has seen her and receives no useful lead; Jungkook is absent too. Although Namjoon has tried to reassure Dorcas that Jungkook can be a good person, she remains uneasy around him and does not feel able to approach him. Her search for Shelby instead carries her through the town center, a park, and secluded corners of campus before she reaches the forest.

At the lake, Dorcas spots Shelby sitting at the end of the pier. The natural quiet gives the encounter a marked stillness: the narration notes that the surrounding sounds are the pleasant sounds of nature. Dorcas’s arrival does not immediately dissolve Shelby’s isolation. She says she has not been feeling herself, though she is doing a little better, and offers a slight smile that conveys more sadness than reassurance. Her hesitation makes the conversation’s setting significant without making it a cure: the calm surroundings provide space for a difficult exchange, but Shelby still has to decide whether she can trust the person beside her.

The disclosure

Dorcas senses that Shelby’s reassurances do not tell the whole story. She strokes Shelby’s back and rests her head on her shoulder, then tells her she can speak without being judged. Shelby is moved, but remains uncertain: she wonders whether she trusts Dorcas enough to disclose what has been troubling her for two years. After taking a deep breath, she finally tells Dorcas that she was raped.

The date therefore holds two distinct times together. The rape lies two years in the past; the telling occurs on the lakeside on October 29. Shelby’s words do not erase that distance or suggest that the effects have passed. Instead, they give the earlier event a listener in the present. The novel places the disclosure after Shelby’s uncertainty and hesitation, so the act of speaking registers as a difficult choice rather than a sudden, effortless release.

Aftermath and support

Shelby explains that she previously saw a psychologist in Los Angeles and now receives care from that therapist’s colleague, whom she describes as kind. She then speaks about consequences of the assault, including self-harm, an eating disorder, and cannabis use. The scene presents these not as isolated details but as part of what Shelby has been living with since the violence. Dorcas listens, visibly affected by fear, anger, and sadness, and takes Shelby’s hands, gently stroking them.

Dorcas promises to remain at Shelby’s side while acknowledging that they have not known each other for long. She distinguishes herself from Madison and says she is willing to give Shelby time. That qualification matters: her support does not demand immediate intimacy or a complete account. Shelby thanks her, and the exchange ends with the possibility of trust beginning to form rather than with the impression that one conversation has resolved the trauma.

Significance of the date

Mardi 29 octobre gives the disclosure a precise place in the story’s calendar while preserving the difference between the original harm and its later telling. The scene moves from a day of absence and searching to a quiet encounter, then from Shelby’s guarded account of feeling unwell to the naming of the rape and its continuing effects. Its emotional turn depends on patient witnessing: Dorcas offers reassurance, listens to what Shelby chooses to share, and accepts that trust will take time. The date thus marks not the end of Shelby’s pain, but a moment when she no longer has to hold this part of her history entirely alone.