The Last Thing He Told Me

The exchange between Hannah and Owen about the woodworking symposium in Austin serves two purposes: to signal to the reader how attuned Hannah is to even the slightest changes in her husband, suggesting she would not be easily deceived by him, and to lay the groundwork for her decision to travel to Austin—the place that evokes such an odd response from Owen. The anecdote about Owen’s unwillingness to travel to Austin because it might upset Bailey, however, sows seeds of doubt in the reader, who wonders whether Owen’s concern was genuine or whether Bailey’s well-being is the excuse Owen deploys whenever he needs to escape his past.

The description of the wedding rings—rings made by Hannah of brushed steel and sturdy white oak—suggests that the rings symbolize something more than a civil status. The fact that the rings are made from unusually durable materials symbolizes the strength and durability of the bond the couple shares, and the reader wonders whether this will turn out to be an accurate or a wrongful estimation of the relationship. The ring will reappear in the final chapter of the novel, allowing Hannah to identify Owen as the nearly unrecognizable man who visits her at a design showcase.

When Hannah recalls the conversation with Owen about a past trip to Taos, which made no sense to her at the time, she reinforces the reader’s doubts about Owen and builds up to the cliffhanger at the end of the chapter, when Hannah tells Owen, “[T]here’s not a whole lot you could tell me about who you used to be that would change anything, at least not between us” and Owen responds, ”Thank God for that” (79). Once again, the reader is torn between wanting to believe as Hannah does that Owen is a good person, and facing the facts and memories suggesting otherwise.

The title of Chapter 11, “Bailey’s No Good Very Bad Day,” is a reference to Judith Viorst’s 2014 bestselling children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; this is an authorial wink to Dave’s readers, many of whom have likely read the book to their own children. It serves another purpose, as well, which is to suggest that Hannah—the narrator ostensibly supplying the chapter titles—is also familiar with this book, indicating at least a cursory interest in children prior to Bailey’s arrival in her life.

As the object of whisper campaigns, Bailey and Hannah finally have some common ground. Hannah is sympathetic to the pain and distress Bailey experiences at school when her peers gossip about Owen, and she recognizes she and Bailey share the same fear: Owen is gone for good. This marks a turning point in the relationship between Hannah and Bailey, and when Hannah agrees to let Bailey skip school the next day, there is a marked shift in Bailey, who begins to soften her stance towards Hannah.

When Hannah presses Bailey for memories about Austin, Bailey recalls a wedding and visiting a football stadium, laying down another piece of the groundwork for Hannah’s upcoming decision to go to Austin. Another foreshadowing clue is revealed when Bailey tells Hannah she barely remembers her mother. Hannah recalls Owen telling her that he took his daughter to a therapist:

The therapist told Owen this was common. It was a defense mechanism to ease the abandonment of losing a parent as young as Bailey was when she’d lost Olivia. But Owen thought it was bigger than that, and, for some reason, he seemed to blame himself for it (85).

The tension continues to grow as the reader wonders how Owen might be responsible for his daughter’s failure to remember her mother, and why.

At the end of the chapter, Hannah sees that Bailey is crying and vows to take Bailey’s pain away. The reader understands that Hannah is projecting her own painful past onto the situation, and her fervent desire to spare Bailey from any pain is a direct result of Hannah’s own experiences. However, the readers—particularly the parents to whom the chapter title nodded—also know it is impossible to spare anyone—even a child—from pain. Thus, Hannah’s mission is, in many ways, doomed from the start. The best for which the reader can hope is that Hannah will find a way to mitigate the damage of what is coming.

In Chapter 12, Hannah’s memory of Owen’s earlier refusal to accompany her to Austin for two weeks serves two purposes: It is yet another hint that the solution to the puzzle of Owen’s disappearance lies in Texas, and it reinforces Hannah’s belief about Owen’s concern for Bailey, because Owen explained his reaction by saying he was anxious about the effect Hannah’s move to Sausalito would have on Bailey. This made sense to Hannah, who explains, “It always came down to Bailey for Owen. Any changes that upended her were going to upend him. I understood the anxiety” (88). Here we have yet more evidence that this foundational belief—that everything Owen does centers on Bailey’s well-being—is the lens through which Hannah has viewed (and excused) several things Owen has said and done. While that lens previously allowed Hannah to get past those minor events, in hindsight, they now seem loaded with the possibility that Owen had concerns beyond Bailey to make him bristle whenever the topic of Austin arose.

Still, Hannah cannot accept that Owen would have left unless he did so to protect Bailey, which motivates Hannah to suggest to Bailey the two of them travel to Austin the following morning. The trip to Austin not only signals Hannah’s departure from the crucible of Sausalito, but it also signals a new dawn in her relationship with Bailey.