50 pages 1 hour read

Anita Shreve

The Pilot's Wife

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

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Part 2, Chapter 16-Part 3, Chapter 21

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary

What stuns Katherine is not only the existence of the child, but also his two different colored eyes, a genetic anomaly that both Jack and Mattie possess. In fact, the baby looks, to Kathryn, exactly like Mattie at that age. There is no doubt he is Jack’s child. When Muire invites her in, she meets another child, an older girl of about four. When they sit down, Kathryn notices that the other woman is wearing a wedding ring. Muire tells her that she and Jack had been married, four and a half years ago, in the Catholic Church. Muire also confirms that she had known about Kathryn all along. She lights a cigarette, which Jack had always said he hated, and tells Kathryn the story of her relationship with Jack. They had met on a flight five years previously, had an affair, and fell in love, but Jack told her he would never leave Mattie.

Kathryn realizes, as Muire talks about her life with Jack, that the times when Jack had a terrible schedule, it was because he was arranging to spend time in London. Kathryn keeps questioning Muire, finally asking her “what happened on Jack’s plane” (222). Muire says she doesn't know, but seems to Kathryn to be lying.

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