The Notebook

In the morning, Allie remembers how Noah talked about her painting. She knows he is an early riser and wonders if he is already out fishing or kayaking.

When Allie wakes up, Noah is already kayaking up a stream as he feels that “[t]here’s something special, almost mystical, about spending dawn on the water” (100). As he paddles, he think about Lon and Allie. When he goes home, he chops wood and looks at Allie’s painting. There are clouds in the sky, and he knows that it will rain soon.

In town, Allie goes into an art gallery. There are several paintings she likes, all by an artist named Elayn. She studies the paintings and remembers what Noah said about her talent. She thinks she should start painting again. She goes to a department store and buys paper, chalk, and pencils. Back at the inn where she is staying, she draws, and “[i]t was almost as if she’d never stopped” (107). She works on a drawing for two hours. Downstairs, the concierge tells her that she missed several calls from Lon the night before. She is surprised to hear that he called four times and wonders if everything is all right at home. She tells the concierge that Lon is in court today, or she would call him back. Four minutes after she leaves, Lon calls from the courthouse.

Allie meets Noah at his house and kisses him on the cheek. She asks him what her surprise is, and he says that with the storm coming, he can’t take her to the place he planned on. She says she wants to go and doesn’t care if it rains. They get in the canoe, and Noah begins paddling, their destination a mile away up the creek. She watches him row and thinks, “Artistic. There’s something almost artistic about him when he does this. Something natural, as if being on the water were beyond his control, part of a gene passed on to him from some obscure hereditary pool” (114). She sees Noah as both complicated and simple, a combination she admires: “He seemed to savor life more fully than others appeared to, and that was what had first attracted her to him” (215).

Allie asks Noah what he remembers most about their summer together. He remembers all of it equally well because she made it unforgettable. He says they didn’t plan on falling in love with each other, but they had. The love he felt for her is similar to the kind of love poets describe as uncontrollable and irresistible:“‘Every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory. I’ll never forget a single moment of it’” (117). Allie realizes that she no longer feels any tension about being in New Bern or with Noah. She is happy that he has changed so little: “It took strength to hold on to inner passion, and Noah had done that” (119). She knows that the world is made for workers, not poets, and that is why so few people understand Noah.

She thinks about her art: “Painting was what she was meant to do, she was sure of that now” (120). She remembers showing Lon an abstract painting early in their relationship. He asked her what it was supposed to be, and she didn’t know how to answer. Allie knows Lon will be a good husband and father, but they will not have a passionate relationship. As she watches Noah row, she thinks that “[h]e exuded sexuality in everything he did” (121). Noah tells her that they have arrived and asks her to close her eyes.

They are sitting in a small lake surrounded by thousands of geese and swans. Noah gives Allie some bread, and they feed the birds. When they hear thunder, it is time to leave. Minutes later, Noah is rowing them through a downpour. Allie laughs and enjoys the rain, knowing that it is soaking her dress. She hopes that Noah is noticing. When they reach the dock, he ties the canoe up. Allie gets out, holds his hands, and “knew that she had fallen in love with Noah Taylor Calhoun again, and that maybe, just maybe, she had never stopped” (126). In the house, Noah gives her a pair of his pants and a dry shirt. She changes in his bedroom. He is building a fire downstairs. When she sees him, she asks if he has anything strong to drink. As they drink, he tells her that what he actually remembers most about their summer is making love: “‘You were my first, and it was more wonderful than I ever thought it would be’” (133).

Allie tells him that she wrote him a dozen letters after getting home but that she never sent them. She was afraid that he had forgotten her. When he didn’t write, people told her that he had used her, but she didn’t believe them. Then she heard from Sarah, who said Noah had left New Bern. She didn’t ask Sarah where he went because she assumed he didn’t want her to know.

Noah says that he loves Allie more now than he has ever has. She tells him that he is the only man she has ever had sex with. She remembers that when they said goodbye, he pressed a note into her hand. She read it later. The note said that Noah wondered if they had known each other, and loved each other, in other lives. He believed that they would always find each other, even if they always had to be forced apart afterward. That would make their current goodbye “a prelude to what will come” (141). She kisses Noah, and they have sex, then spend the rest of the day in each other’s arms.

In the morning, he says, “‘You are the answer to every prayer I’ve offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don’t know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have’” (149).

Lon asks the judge to postpone the outcome of a trial until the following Monday. The judge agrees, and Lon drives toward New Bern.

After breakfast the next morning, Allie and Noah make love again. At noon, there is a knock on the door. Noah answers it and sees Anne Nelson, Allie’s mother. They sit at the kitchen table. Anne says that she had to come and knew what Allie was up to. She also says that Lon is on his way and that he is upset. She didn’t tell Lon what was going on but believes he has figured it out. Anne says that she will always love Allie but that she doesn’t know what she should do. She gives Allie Noah’s letters, apologizes, and says that she knows no one will make Allie feel the way Noah does. As her mother leaves, Allie think she hears her say “‘Follow your heart,’” but she isn’t sure (157).

After Anne is gone, Allie apologizes to Noah. He says that they both knew this was coming. Then he says, “‘You’re not going to tell him about us, are you?’” (160), and Allie hears the pain in his voice. She says she wants to have a happy ending without hurting anyone. Noah says that it would be unfair to Lon to marry him and keep looking back and regretting not staying with Noah in New Bern. Allie starts to cry, and Noah realizes that she is not going to be able to stay with him. Before she leaves, she gives him the drawing she was working on at the inn: It is of Noah and his house.

He kisses her goodbye, and they tell each other that they love each other. She drives away, and he believes he will never see her again.