Absolutely Normal Chaos

As she opens her journal, Mary Lou doubts that she knows what a journal actually is. The journal is an assignment from her former English teacher Mrs. Zollar. It will be submitted to the new English teacher when school starts again.

Mary Lou lives in Easton, Ohio with her “normally-strange family”, which comprises her two parents, Sam and Sally, and her siblings Maggie, Dennis, Doug, and Tommy (2). The second oldest sibling, Mary Lou claims that she does not “know what I am. I am waiting to find out” (3).

As she documents her family dynamics, Mary Lou realizes that writing is not as difficult as she thought it would be, though she is still uncertain about what a journal is. When she tried to ask Mrs. Zollar what a journal was, a classmate named Alex Cheevey interrupted her, saying that Mary Lou’s questions will make more work for them all. Although she once had a crush on Alex, Mary Lou now thinks he is a jerk.

On the last day of school, some of her classmates who live on the other side of town will be going to Christy’s party. Mary Lou has only been invited to one such party, and she considers them an excuse for girls to “show off their cute clothes and wiggle their bottoms in the middle of the room so that boys leaning against the wall can see them and think how cute they are” (5).

Instead, Mary Lou goes over to the neat house of her organized best friend, Beth Ann. On the way home, she sees Alex, who does not live in the area. He blushes and says that he is there visiting another family. When he asks Mary Lou if she is going to Christy’s party, Mary Lou is defensive about not being invited and says she is glad she is not going. Still, confused by Alex’s presence in her neighborhood, she feels glum about not having much to do.

Mary Lou learns that her 17-year-old cousin Carl Ray will come to stay with her family for the summer while he looks for work. The oldest of seven children, Carl Ray is the son of Mary Lou’s Uncle Carl Joe, who lives in West Virginia. The West Virginia Finneys are somewhat estranged, as they almost never leave West Virginia. Mary Lou recalls that her parents always talk about the New Year’s Eve when Uncle Carl Joe came to visit and fell in love at first sight with Aunt Radene.

Mary Lou and her siblings are tasked with transforming Tommy’s nursery into a viable bedroom for Carl Ray. Dennis is injured by a wayward mattress spring and goes to the emergency room, leaving Mary Lou to do most of the work preparing the room. When injured Dennis receives the lion’s share of her mother’s attention, Mary Lou is frustrated.

Still, the family is excited to have Carl Ray stay with them. Mary Lou’s mother tells her and Maggie that they will have to wear their bathrobes when Carl Ray is around; Mary Lou wonders whether Carl Ray will do the same.

When Carl Ray arrives, he is a disappointment to the whole family. Mary Lou is unimpressed with his tall, thin, freckled looks. She also worries that he “is going to take over” (17). Her parents allow him privileges such as having four helpings of food, sitting in the special seats, and getting to use the bathroom first at bedtime. As far as Mary Lou can tell, all Carl Ray does is eat and stay in his room. She thinks that he might be shy, as he only gives grunting replies to her parents’ questions. Meanwhile, Mary Lou anticipates that her older sister Maggie will be in trouble, as it is one o’clock in the morning and she still has not returned from an outing with her boyfriend Kenny.

Maggie is devastated and acts out theatrically because her father grounded her for coming home late. She fears that Kenny will never speak to her again. Meanwhile, Mary Lou misses out on a day trip with Beth Ann because her mother insists that she wait for Carl Ray to get up so she can clean his room. By the time he surfaces, Beth Ann has made other plans and Mary Lou’s day is ruined. In Mary Lou’s view, all Carl Ray does is watch television and mope. Only Maggie, with her insistent questions, can get a few words out of him about looking for a job.

Mary Lou is so bored that she accompanies her younger brothers to a field where they built a tree fort the previous summer. She recollects a summer when she was nine, and she and Dennis played with his friend Johnny White in the forest. When Dennis went to get food for them, Mary Lou kissed Johnny. She kissed him again “mainly to see if I could taste anything” (24).

Later, Mary Lou’s mother received a hysterical phone-call from Mrs. White who reported that Johnny told her about “‘necking’ in the woods” with a “wild girl” (24). Mrs. White then banned Mary Lou from ever seeing Johnny again. While Mary Lou was confused about Mrs. White’s reaction, her mother told her to wait a few years before kissing boys “because kissing is something you have to be careful about” (25). Now, four years later, Mary Lou has not kissed anyone since, but she remains curious about kissing and the taste. Beth Ann tells her that kisses taste like chicken.

The family takes turns questioning Carl Ray about getting a job. Mary Lou is surprised to see that Carl Ray has brought no formal clothes with him.

Later, Mary Lou and Dougie take Tommy to the pool to try to teach him to swim. Mary Lou spots Alex Cheevey on the outside of the fence and wonders what he is doing around there. She confesses that “when I talk with Alex, I always feel like I’m missing something, like I don’t hear all the words” (29).

Later, Dennis and Mary Lou go to play with the Furtz twins in the street, and Carl Ray comes to join them. Tall, freckled Mr. Furtz is about the age of Mary Lou’s father. Carl Ray shows sudden interest when he hears Mr. Furtz’s name.

Beth Ann schedules a drive-in date with her older sister’s boyfriend’s brother. Mary Lou writes, “Beth Ann is going to be hard to live with after this” (33).

Beth Ann brags about the date she will have on Friday. 

Mary Lou writes this entry in the format of play dialogue. She conveys that Maggie has been permitted to attend the party with Kenny, after some drama in which he floated the possibility of going with another girl.

Mary Lou privately admits that she is slightly jealous of Beth Ann for going on the date. Meanwhile, Maggie goes out and buys a skimpy dress for the party, which she hides from her parents. The big news of the day is that Carl Ray has found a job in Mr. Furtz’s hardware store.

Mary Lou feels left out; Beth Ann is vague about the details of her date and drops that she will be going out with Derek tonight as well. Meanwhile, Maggie spends all day getting ready for the party and looks fantastic by the time Kenny comes to pick her up. 

Mary Lou feels a lot better after Maggie tells her about the party. Maggie says that Beth Ann was at the party with Derek, who is “sort of a jerk” and not the dreamboat Beth Ann bragged about (45). Meanwhile, Alex was there too and asked after Mary Lou.

Mr. Furtz is sick and has to be taken to hospital. Carl Ray does not say who will be looking after the hardware store in his absence. Mary Lou puts some deodorant on his shelf so he will get a hint about washing.

Mary Lou receives her school reading list in the mail. At the library, she borrows The Odyssey and the Poems of Robert Frost. She sets The Odyssey aside, owing to the strange names, and begins the book of poems, which she considers overly simple and deficient.

Mary Lou learns that Mr. Furtz has died after a massive heart attack. She is spooked by how someone who seemed so healthy can suddenly die; she hopes that her healthy-looking parents do not also die.

Things are tense in the neighborhood after Mr. Furtz’s death. Mary Lou and her family will be going to view the body the following day. When Beth Ann calls, Mary Lou is testy with her, dropping the bombshell that her neighbor is dead but without offering any details.

Mary Lou reads The Odyssey to take her mind off Mr. Furtz. At first, she is baffled by all the long Greek names and the strange, antiquated diction which reminds her of the West Virginia Finneys’ preacher. However, she is intrigued by how the Olympian gods produce everyone’s fates and imagines them deciding the time of Mr. Furtz’s death and then her own. When she gets frustrated that she cannot remember who Telemachus is, Carl Ray surprises her by knowing the answer: Telemachus is Odysseus’s son.

Mary Lou is surprised to see Carl Ray join them in viewing Mr. Furtz’s body. At the funeral, Carl Ray touches Mr. Furtz’s arm and cries. This makes Mary Lou like him more. Carl Ray also shows his softer side when he tells Tommy how Mr. Furtz will be buried and that God will come and take his soul. Mary Lou tries to take comfort in this image, but she cannot help thinking about how Mr. Furtz must feel when trapped in his coffin.

All the children have nightmares after the body-viewing experience. In Mary Lou’s dream, she sees Carl Ray behind a tree and calls his name, but he is gone when she runs up to the tree. The parents go to the funeral alone, and while Mary Lou is looking for food to fix for lunch, she realizes that Carl Ray has performed her father’s ritual of bringing home hot bread and ham.

When Beth Ann comes over later, she is curious about Carl Ray, and Mary Lou cannot help making him sound “almost exotic” (61).

Mary Lou reads The Odyssey and finds that her favorite character is the goddess Athene, whose magic sandals enable her to fly. She wishes that like Telemachus, she could have her “own personal Athene” to solve all her problems (62).

Mary Lou imitates Homer in calling upon the Muse to inspire her to write. She is struck by what Athene says about death: “when a man’s time comes (to die) […] no one can help him, not even a god” (63). It makes Mary Lou think that the time of death is preset, and she wonders why Mr. Furtz’s was so early.

Mary Lou rummages in the attic and finds a photo of her father, Uncle Carl Joe, and Aunt Radene when they were young. She concludes that Carl Ray did not get his looks from his attractive mother. In Carl Ray’s room, Mary Lou leaves a note informing him that maid service is over.

Mary Lou feels abandoned by her Muse and writes nothing.

Mary Lou takes Tommy to the pool after Maggie shirks her responsibilities to look after him. She is pleased to find that Alex is there and that he is happy to play with Tommy. They talk for a while, with Mary Lou bringing up the topics of conversation and Alex replying in monosyllables.

Mary Lou and Tommy go down to the hardware store to spy on Carl Ray at work. He proudly shows them around.

Back home reading The Odyssey, Mary Lou is triggered by the descriptions of how Telemachus is treated like a prince wherever he goes, even though “he’s a total stranger” (68). They remind her of how her mother forces her to pick up after Carl Ray because he is their guest (68).

On the Fourth of July, the family goes to Windy Rock and has a picnic. Mary Lou likes the Indigenous legend attached to Windy Rock about the man who tries to replicate his lover’s death by falling off the same cliff face. The winds get in the way of his plan, blowing for two weeks until he falls asleep. This is why the winds continue to blow every time someone approaches the rock.

Carl Ray continues to surprise, chasing Mary Lou and her brothers through the woods and “scaring the living daylights out of everyone” (70). Later, he is the only one moved by Mary Lou’s father’s Independence Day speech.