All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Donal describes a night when Ricki, one of Liam’s numerous women, tries to get Kellen to take her riding on his renovated bike while Liam is off with Dee. Kellen tells Ricki that only Wavy can ride on his bike now because she is his “girl.” Ricki calls Kellen a pedophile, but Sandy cuts her off, saying that “it’s sweet” (174). When Ricki asks how old Wavy is, guessing 10, Donal tells her Wavy is 13. To Donal’s delight, Kellen takes him riding instead of Ricki.

One morning near Christmas, Donal sneaks to the farmhouse to see Wavy before school. He finds Kellen coming out of Wavy’s room and then finds Wavy naked in bed. Donal thinks it makes sense that Kellen wants to marry Wavy because most other girls are “gross.” He admires the little rainbows Wavy’s ring casts on the wall.

On Casey the day nurse’s last day with Val, she reviews her experience in the household and witnesses one more interaction between Wavy and Kellen. While Casey and Val watch TV (and Casey waits as the minutes of her shift tick down), Wavy comes out dressed for a party and carrying a wrapped package (it later emerges that it is Kellen’s birthday). Casey also notices she has a camera. Unlike most days when Kellen arrives, Wavy waits for him to come to the door and knock. He opens his gift: a motorcycle helmet. At first, he protests that he doesn’t wear a helmet, but then he acquiesces to Wavy. He worries Wavy will be cold, so she gets a jacket to go over her dainty dress. before they leave, Casey takes a photo of them with Wavy’s camera. To accommodate their difference in height, she has to turn the camera on its side.

For Kellen’s birthday, Wavy plans an evening that includes dinner and a movie. She wears a fancy dress and puts her hair up; Kellen talks about how beautiful she looks. When they go back to his house, they have ice cream and watch a movie, though Wavy will not eat the ice cream while Kellen is watching, only taking bites when he leaves the room. She sits in his lap, and Kellen notes that she does not fit there as easily as she used to. Kellen develops an erection and leaves the room to splash water on his face. When he comes back, they start to kiss, and Wavy straddles him in the chair. She tells him to cover his eyes so she can eat ice cream, but eventually she starts kissing him again. Kellen puts his hand in her dress to feel her breast, and Wavy unzips Kellen’s jeans. When she reaches in and brings him to a climax, Kellen feels sick. He tells Wavy she should not do something like that, calling it dirty, and she flinches. Wavy thinks he means that Val was right—that she is dirty.

Kellen wonders why Wavy does not understand what he tells her, but then he decides maybe he is the one who doesn’t understand since he bought her a ring and stopped seeing any other women. He wonders where she learned sexual behavior, thinking about Liam’s girls. He realizes he bears responsibility for their behavior as much as she does. He could have stopped it, but he did not want to stop.

Right after Wavy leaves, Kellen considers shooting himself, but he worries that Wavy will think she caused him to do it. He goes to the farmhouse, where he finds Wavy scrubbing herself with bleach in the bathtub. He begs her to forgive him. Wavy calls herself a “dirty whore” and punches Kellen in the face when he tries to stop her from hurting herself (188). Val yells at them to stop making so much noise, and Kellen shouts back at her, asking what is wrong with her that she cannot get out of bed and make sure her daughter is not being raped. After Kellen chastises Val, Wavy calms down. While he dries her hair, he asks her why Val would call her dirty. Wavy tells about sitting in Liam’s lap as a child: Val erupted, shouting at Liam not to touch her. Kellen understands because he already knows how moody and unpredictable Val can be. He tries to tell Wavy that what they did was dirty but that she is not. She wants to know how it can be dirty if they both enjoy it. She takes her ring off and only puts it back on when Kellen admits that their sexual encounter is not dirty if they love each other. He cautions her that they need to slow down, like he needed to slow down the night he met her. Otherwise, the damage could be just as bad.

Wavy poses suggestively while Kellen gets a haircut after the barber mistakes her for Kellen’s daughter. At Kellen’s house, she frets because Kellen has not touched her in the months since their December encounter. She tells Kellen she regrets making him dirty, and Kellen again tries to explain, in a total panic, that he loves her and that she has not made him dirty. However, when Wavy reaches for his belt buckle, he pushes her away.

Wavy starts to walk home, but Kellen catches up to her on the bike. They kiss, and the “slow game” begins (195). Over the coming months, they pretend to watch television so they can touch one another. Wavy touches Kellen everywhere except below his belt. She moves up against him and wears clothing, on Sandy’s advice, that makes it easy for Kellen to touch her. The night before she leaves to spend two weeks of the summer at her aunt’s house, Wavy leaves a pornographic magazine open on Kellen’s pillow to show him what she wants him to do. Wavy feels that nothing with Kellen can be dirty. She finds happiness in knowing that Kellen does not fear her “germs” (196).