The Blue Hour

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and cursing.

In 1998, Grace was working at a small hospital in the town of Carrachan, Scotland (on the mainland, not far from Eris), when Vanessa came in with a broken wrist. Vanessa explained that she lived on Eris, and Grace offered to drive her home after tending to her injury. Vanessa told Grace that she had recently moved to the island and that while she had become well-known as a painter, she was more interested in working on ceramics and sculpture recently.

An entry from Vanessa’s diary references how Grace began to visit regularly during her recovery, bringing food and gifts. Grace was familiar with the island and its history since she had grown up nearby.

In the narrative present after Becker leaves, Grace muses on the strange impression he left: “[F]irst he frightened her, then he made her feel safe” (76). Becker reminds Grace of Nick Riley, a boy she knew at university. Secretly, Grace wonders if the bone fragment in the sculpture actually could be human: The sculpture was created at a time when Vanessa was behaving strangely.