Riding The Bus With My Sister

“The Girlfriend” Summary

Beth is joking and laughing with a driver named Melanie about how hot various boy bands and actors are. When there are no other passengers on this run, Melanie and Beth love to crack up together, usually over silly talk about boys. Rachel feels left out of their joy and friendship and realizes how much she has given up in letting her friendships slip away to focus solely on work. Rachel realizes she has taken happiness and friendship for granted in her life and lost them both. She sees her reflection in the bus window, and there is something new there: “not only failure and terror I observed in Mom, and now see in myself. There is self-pity, too” (289). Rachel realizes that she has never seen self-pity in Beth, in spite of all the hardships she endures. Rachel thinks about how she needs to try to stop herself from falling into self-pity.

Over the next few weeks, she is pulled out self-pity as many of the drivers start turning to her for help or advice. Rodolpho wants to make a career change, so she and Beth help him prepare for an audition at the local theater. Rachel accompanies Jacob to the hospital to visit a young woman who has cancer. She holds and comforts Jacob as he weeps for this woman who will not live much longer. James talks to her about his son, who has autism, and the decision to place him in a group home. Joan asks for her help in returning to school to get her GED.

Rachel talks about all of this with Rick, as they continue to date. Rachel tells Rick how much she enjoys him, but she is still longing for her ex, Sam. He tells her, “I like your company, and you can handle this any way you please. I just want you to feel safe with me” (292).

“The Eighteenth Hole” Summary

In a flashback to Rachel’s twenties, Rachel, Laura, and Max are all hard at work building their careers. Meanwhile, Beth, who is 27, is spending her days in their father’s basement watching TV. The siblings worry endlessly about her and try to come up with a solution. Their father is re-married to another college professor. She is kind and supportive of Beth, but her father is at his wits end. They have moved to a new house even further away from town, and although there is a bus she could ride into town, Beth has not done so yet. Their father is no longer working in an office, having changed careers to real estate, so Beth isn’t spending her time with him at work anymore.

After Beth and her mother reunited, they spent lots of time together doing fun activities like shopping and going to amusement parks, but they would get into arguments about Beth’s eating habits and unhealthy lifestyle. After her mother remarried, she and her husband both lost their jobs and had to relocate to North Carolina. She talks on the phone with Beth every day.

Beth’s father finds a program called a “sheltered workshop, run by a local social service agency […] Every day, he drives her there, and though she is shy at first, she soon gets the hang of it” (295). Everyone thinks this is the solution they’ve been looking for and feels relieved. Soon, however, Beth begins lying, stealing from her stepmother, and sneaking out to see a boyfriend; “increasingly, too, a smirk accompanies her misbehavior. As if she thinks it’s charming to be bad, and she’s certain we think her too incompetent to hold her responsible for her actions” (296). As the siblings complain about Beth’s difficult behaviors, Rachel realizes that they care more about her impact on their lives than about her life.

On a winter’s day, Rachel’s father drives to her house and implores her to take Beth part time. Rachel says she cannot. He tells her that he already tried the same thing with Laura and Max and they refused as well. He was hoping to spread the burden among all of them so he didn’t lose his mind, but none of Beth’s siblings are willing to share their homes with her. Rachel’s father leaves, “and as I watch him I know I will always be haunted by this moment, when I let my father—and my sister—down so completely. I sit in a sweat of self-hatred as I watch him shuffle toward the door” (297).

Their father finally calls social services to find out about a group home. He is told the waiting lists are very long. He puts up a fight and contacts the governor. This works, and Beth gets accepted into a group home right away. During the month of the year when Beth and Rachel are the same age, “the twin month” (298), Rachel visits Beth in her new group home. Beth has a roommate and a shared bathroom and household chores. She doesn’t like it very much. Rachel visits her every Saturday. Rachel feels bad about Beth’s situation, especially when one of her roommates attacks her with a vacuum, so she takes her out for ice cream and a game of miniature golf to distract her.

After some time, Beth adjusts to group home life. She attends the sheltered workshop and rides the bus independently to get there. She has made friends, including Jesse. Rachel has just published her first book and is living with Sam, but she and Beth can’t seem to communicate. Beth only wants to watch sitcoms and has nothing to say to her siblings when they visit. She quits job after job, and over time, Rachel says, “a dark voice comes to life inside me. It finds fault with everything she does, and with myself for not knowing how to deal with her. Whenever we’re together it erupts without warning like a geyser. I hate it” (301).

At age 32, Beth sends her family a letter stating that she wants to live independently. The family tries to convince her it’s a bad idea, but she holds firm. She moves into her own apartment with the help of Jesse and her aides. Rachel does not visit because she is falling into a depression as her relationship with Sam comes to an end. Rachel calls Beth, but she doesn’t answer. Max explains it’s because Beth is riding the bus all day long. After Rachel moves out and leaves Sam, she sends Beth a letter with her new address. Rachel writes her a card every week, and Max brings his children to visit Beth once a month. Laura visits once a year. Their mother visits occasionally. Their father waits for Beth to get off at the bus stop near his house for a visit, sometimes even seeing her on the bus from his kitchen table, but she never does.

“It is the middle of a December night, I am thirty-nine, and Beth is thirty-eight, and I am lying in bed in my apartment, staring at the ceiling” (303). Rachel cannot come up with a story idea for her editor, and as she lays awake thinking, she notices the moon through her bedroom curtains. She recalls the way Beth always called their attention to the moon and thinks that she ought to blow off her assignment and go visit her sister instead. 

“Swans and Witches” Summary

Some of the bus drivers have organized a makeover for Beth. Rachel takes her to the salon and tries to make Beth comfortable, but Beth is not happy about missing her usual bus rides and doesn’t seem interested in becoming more beautiful. Rachel loves how beautiful Beth looks and feels sad that she won’t continue to keep up this appearance. As they speak with Olivia, Beth’s case manager, Rachel realizes this is just like when Beth was little and didn’t want to dress as a witch for Halloween: “Suddenly I understand that Beth doesn’t want to look like a swan any more than, way back then, she wanted to look like a witch. I feel a rush of respect and squeeze my arm around her shoulders” (309). Beth gets lots of positive attention all day from the drivers, and she and Rachel enjoy a high-spirited evening together. They are both very happy to be spending time together and are excited to go to their brother’s house the following morning for a holiday party.

In the morning, Rachel finds that Beth has allowed her to sleep in, and she goes to thank Beth. Inexplicably, Beth’s good mood has evaporated, and she is upset with Rachel. Beth tells Rachel that she likes it when she stays in her apartment, but she also likes it when she leaves. When Rachel asks why she is upset, Beth says she doesn’t know. This leads to an argument between the sisters in which Rachel tries to take the high ground but ends up yelling at Beth, “I hate you” (313).

After Rachel takes a shower, she apologizes to Beth and explains that she didn’t mean what she said. What she meant to say is that she doesn’t think she should visit Beth anymore. Beth argues that she does want Rachel around, but Rachel explains that Beth acts like she doesn’t. They drive to Max’s house without speaking, and Beth looks hurt and confused all through the evening. The next day Rachel returns home and decides that she is done with her year with Beth. She is happy to return to her life, “though something has changed” (314). She finds herself RSVPing yes to parties and refusing to work such long hours. One evening while she is home working, she sees her neighbors lighting candles for the holidays outside her window. She makes the decision to turn off her computer, get up, and join her neighbors.

“Finding the Twin” Summary

A few days after the fight between Beth and Rachel, Beth begins sending letters. They are full of apologies and beg Rachel to return. Beth calls every night, but Rachel doesn’t take her calls. Five days after their fight, Rachel finds more letters in her mailbox and is “stricken with the grim awareness that I am being self-righteous and cruel. It’s not making me feel better, and I doubt that it’s doing much to help her” (316). That evening Rachel accepts a call from Beth, and Beth promises to try to be nicer to Rachel. Rachel realizes that it is never going to be easy to be a good sister to Beth, so she has to stop expecting the relationship to be perfect all the time. Beth asks if she will keep visiting, and Rachel agrees that she will. After they hang up, Rachel goes out in the snow to get the Christmas gift Beth gave her. It has been in Rachel’s trunk all this time. She opens it and finds it is a scrapbook, “something she must have chosen with care” (318). Inside is a letter from Beth explain that now Rachel won’t lose anything.

“Iz Gonna Be All Right” Summary

In a flashback to a year ago, on the first of Rachel’s visits to ride the buses. Rachel recognizes a familiar spot while driving along the Pennsylvania turnpike on her way to see Beth. Ten years ago, Sam, Beth, and Rachel were on their way to Max’s wedding. Smoke came pouring out of the engine, and Sam pulled over and yelled for them all to get out. Beth and Rachel huddled together on the side of the road while they waited for a tow truck, and Beth comforted Rachel by saying, “Iz gonna be all right” (320). They sat together in the dark, waiting for help to arrive, and “then, in the night, under the stars, we named old tunes, and we sang” (320).