58 pages • 1 hour read
Mia SheridanArcher's Voice
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 30-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 30 Summary
Bree watches the Pelion Police Parade from the diner, which honors the late Connor Hale. Bree thinks about how Archer should be at his father’s memorial service. Bree receives a call from Detective McIntyre who tells her that she identified her father’s killer. The fingerprints of the person she identified were found at the deli. They told her that Jeffrey Perkins, the rich son of an insurance company owner, was addicted to drugs and told his dealer that he killed a man in a deli for drug money. When the dealer was caught, he named Jeffrey in hopes of saving himself. The detective says that Jeffrey is out on bail, but the evidence is overwhelming, and a conviction and sentencing will surely follow.
Bree gets off the phone and Travis and Victoria are standing behind her. Travis overheard the conversation and questions Bree about it. She refuses to answer and, seeing Archer across the street, tries to walk away. Travis grabs her wrist. Archer punches Travis and they began to brawl in the middle of the street. Bree screams, “[y]ou’re brothers! Stop this!” (314). The men stop fighting and Travis realizes her meaning. Travis asks Victoria if she knew and sees that he had been kept in the dark. All of the people of Pelion now know that Archer is Connor’s son. Archer runs off and Bree goes after him.
Bree finds Archer’s house empty, but he left a note. Archer explains to Bree that he is leaving. He says that he does not blame her for telling his secret but that he needs some space to find out what he wants to do with his life. He explains that his trauma would always make him a burden to Bree and that he needs to know that he could be away from her and take care of himself. Archer leaves his cell phone, house keys, and a receipt for a dog boarding house.
Chapter 31 Summary
Archer does not return, and Bree is miserable. Bree mopes around Pelion, waiting for Archer. She works at the diner and keeps Archer’s house clean. Bree spends Thanksgiving and Christmas with Maggie and Norm and prays for Archer to come home. Weeks go by and she never hears a word from him.
Melanie and Liza force Bree to spend time with them and they joke that they are concerned that she may become a “cat lady.” The sisters invite Bree to a New Year’s Eve party at a mansion on the other side of the lake. Bree agrees to go. She accepts a dance from the dashing host, which is cut short when she sees Archer in a suit across the dance floor. The host kindly excuses himself and Bree runs to Archer.
Chapter 32 Summary
Archer drives Bree home, his truck backfiring and scaring guests. He and Bree become hysterical with laughter but Bree’s humor changes quickly to tears. She asks Archer why he left her for so long. Archer promises that he will explain himself when they get home. Bree, unmoved by the explanation, exits the car to walk home. Archer tells her that he could not contact her because he would have wanted to come back. He tells her that he needed to know how to live on his own.
Archer explains to Bree that he fended for himself and found ways to communicate without words. He explains how he got a job and made a friend. He says that his friend Luis even invited him to Christmas where his daughter learned a few signs. Archer tells Bree that he taught the daughter to sign “love” as “B-R-E-E.”
Bree makes Archer promise not to leave her again. They make love and Archer observes that he feels safe and confident instead of possessive and unsure.
Chapter 33 Summary
Bree and Archer spend the next few days together. Archer tells Bree that he intends to take control of the town and put a stop to Victoria’s plans to develop the land into condos. He feels that he will have the support of some of the community such as Norm, Maggie, Mandy, and Ann. Bree tells him about Jeffrey Perkins and Archer is worried that the murderer is out on bail. Bree explains that Jeffrey would not have any clue that she is in Pelion or that she identified him in the lineup.
Bree leaves for work, stopping to linger on the sight of Archer. She has an inclination to appreciate the moment, although she does not know why, since Archer will come to visit her at the diner late that morning.
Bree’s day at the diner is normal and Archer comes to visit her. She is happy until a man walks into the diner. The man is Jeffrey Perkins. Bree is wild with fear. Jeffrey brandishes a gun at Bree and accuses her of ruining his life. He was going to inherit his father’s company before Bree identified him in the lineup. Jeffrey fires the gun at Bree and Archer jumps in front of the bullet. Travis shoots Jeffrey, who dies instantly.
Bree holds Archer as he bleeds on the floor and prays.
Chapter 34 Summary
This chapter is a brief poem that expresses Bree’s prayer for Archer. She repeats: “Come back to me” (354).
Chapter 35 Summary
The people of Pelion rally around Archer, who falls into a coma after being shot by Jeffrey. The people of the town feel that Bree and Archer’s story inspires them to take notice and offer the hand of friendship to others. Travis reveals to Bree that his mother, Victoria, overheard Bree’s call with the detective and told Jeffrey where to find her. Travis told his mother that she needed to leave, or he would press charges. Travis did not have enough evidence, but Victoria left anyway. Archer wakes up from his coma and took over the town. The people of Pelion come out to support him as he speaks to the crowd using an interpreter. He promises to run the town with integrity and that his door is always open. After the speech, Bree shares a tender moment with Archer and thinks to herself that Archer’s voice is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world.
Epilogue Summary
Five years later, Archer comes home early from his day of meetings. He has realized that he is good at running the town and that the improvements he is making are what the town wants: something that does not change the small town feel of Pelion. Bree is heavily pregnant and sitting on a hammock in the backyard. Their twin boys, Connor and Charlie, run to their father, signing “hello.”
Archer helps up Bree and thinks of the day four years before when Norm walked her down the aisle and they were wed. Bree jokes that the baby is going to be a boy and Archer says that Hales always have boys. Archer thinks about Travis and how much he loves his nephews but admits that he can never fully trust him. However, things seemed to go smoother once Travis became Chief of Police. Archer thinks contentedly about his life and love for Bree, and signs to her: “Only you, only ever you” (364).
Chapter 30-Epilogue Analysis
The narrative conflict concerning Archer and Bree’s relationship reaches a climax when Archer leaves Bree. Archer seeks the maturity and experience to fend for himself. Bree does not understand why Archer does not try to communicate with her. However, Archer feels that his behavior when Bree stopped texting him and when he saw the ambulance was unhealthy for their relationship. This is compounded with his jealousy of Travis and Jordan. Archer wants to see that he could exist independently from Bree, although he loved her deeply. This journey for Archer presents the apotheosis of his character development: Once Archer achieves autonomy, makes friends, works a job, and learns to communicate with others, he is able to give Bree the space to do the same. When he recognizes he has learned to thrive in the world, he returns to Bree and offers her an equal and unburdened love. Archer communicates this with Bree through lovemaking when he returns, which emphasizes the significance of Varied Forms of Communication in the novel.
Both Bree and Archer’s plot conflicts are resolved in these final chapters. In the novel’s major dramatic climax, Bree’s attempted murder by Jeffrey leads to Jeffery’s death. This eliminates the threat of another attack and brings her father’s killer to justice. Sheridan uses echoed elements of the plot to emphasize Bree and Archer’s character development in this shooting scene. When Jeffrey attempts to shoot Bree, both Bree and Archer react in the same way they did before. Bree freezes in terror and Archer runs in front of the bullet. What changes is the way they react to the event. During the falling action, Archer publicly acknowledges that Connor is his father and takes control of the town. Victoria is run out of town by Travis, eliminating the novel’s antagonist and strongest tie to Archer’s traumatic past.
The falling action of the novel revolves around the theme of Small Town Love. Although Bree is devastated by Archer’s coma, she accepts comfort from her friends. When Archer recovers, he does not recoil from the community. Instead he steps up and leads the town into an era of prosperity and preservation. Archer’s balanced ideas regarding preserving the hometown elements of the town, but expanding within that aesthetic, resolves the conflict between urban development and small town preservation. The community of Pelion rallies around Archer when he is in the hospital. Many of the townspeople admit to feeling guilt about not having included him or offered friendship. When Archer recovers, the town shows their support when he takes over the town and make efforts to communicate with him. Sheridan ends the novel with the idea that the inclusion of Archer into the community saves the community. The novel ultimately concludes that the inclusion of people with disabilities benefits everyone.
