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However, Kathy didn’t hold a grudge against Tommy for it. At Hails, art was an important part of student Couture, and a student’s social status was often tied to the quality of their ‘creations’. Tommy lacked in art talent and Miss Geraldine wasn’t too pleased about it. Tommy eventually stopped throwing tantrums and Tommy told Kathy that Miss Lucy, a guardian, had a long talk with Tommy about his lack in art talent and told him it was alright to not be creative. At Hails, a mysterious woman who is know as Madame took the students’ best artwork to a place off-campus called a Gallery.
Kathy also flashes back to the time when she was 7 when she first came friends with Ruth. She remembers a time when they were playing a pretend game called ‘secret guard’. This is where a group of girls would pretend to be bodyguards of Miss Geraldine, their favorite guardian. They imagine a plot to kidnap Miss Geraldine and take her into the woods that surround Hails. Also Kathy remembers chess being a popular game at Hails. Ruth often commented on people’s games when she saw them playing, because of this, Kathy assumed she was very good at chess and ask if she could teach her.
However, it soon becomes clear that Ruth doesn’t know anything about the game ND Kathy is discussed and walks away and because of this Kathy is excluded from the ‘secret guard’. Three years later, Kathy notices that Ruth has a flashy pencil case and Ruth says that it was a present from Miss Geraldine, a forbidden gesture of favoritism. Kathy suspects that Ruth got it from a sale. In geography lesson, Miss Emily says that the town of Norfolk is like a ‘lost corner’. This is also what the students called the lost and found area on the third floor. At a sale, Kathy buys a tape by a 1 sass singer, Judy Bridgewater.
Kathy was especially taken to the song ‘Never Let Me Go’. She interpreted it to be about a woman’s love from her baby. Several months later Kathy lost the tape and was very upset by it. When Kathy is 15, Miss Lucy overhears the students talking about the careers they want to grow up being, and she becomes very upset. She gives the students a speech explaining that they won’t grow old because when they are young adults they will donate their vital organs. “told and not told” Ruth and Tommy by this time has become a romantic couple. They are taught about sex and how it can be fun and beautiful but should be kept for the right person.
At 16, Kathy chooses to lose her virginity to Harry C although she is not interested in him romantically. She thinks this will be ‘practice’ for the person she will fall in love with. THE COTTAGES: At 16, the students are taken to living facilities across England for young adult clones. Kathy and seven others from Hails, including Tommy and Ruth, are sent to the Cottages, a farm house. There they are expected to write a long academic essay, but no one takes this assignment very seriously. At the cottages, Ruth and Tommy start to show very public displays of affection.
Kathy notices hat many of the older clones, ‘veterans’, at the cottages copy mannerisms and saying from television sitcoms and Ruth picks up on this habit too. Kathy confronts Ruth about this saying “it looks daft”. Ruth replies saying that Kathy is only jealous because she hasn’t made friends the older students like she has. After arriving at the cottages Kathy casually has sex with a number of older boys there. Kathy confined in Ruth and told her about this. Ruth becomes fixated on becoming popular in the cottages and behaves oddly around the other clones.
One day Tommy catches Kathy looking at pornographic magazines and t looked like she was looking for something as opposed to doing it “for kicks”. One day, Rodney and Christie (older clones at the cottages) return from a trip to Norfolk saying that they’ve spotted Rut’s possible (person she has cloned from). They take Kathy, Ruth and Tommy back to Norfolk to see if it true. Christie and Rodney ask about a rumor they’ve heard, that Hails students that are “really, properly in love” are allowed to apply for deferral before the beginning of their donations.
This would allow them to spend a few years together before tarring donations. Ruth insists that the rumor is true and Tommy gets annoyed with her because Kathy and Tommy know the rumor is false. When Christie and Rodney want to go visit an old friend Ruth goes with them, but Tommy and Kathy go to explore instead. Kathy and Tommy are left alone and Tommy explains that he had tried to find another copy of Kitty’s Judy Bridgewater tape she lost back at Hails. They then go to look for it in second hand shops and eventually Kathy finds it.
This leads to an awkward and emotional moment of connection between both of them. Tommy continues to think about the deferrals and questions whether it was related to the Galleries-? “reveals our souls”, determine whether a couple is truly in love etc. Tommy confronts Kathy about the time he caught her looking at porn magazine and it is revealed that she was looking for her possible in pictures. Tommy begins to draw again in hope that he could use them to get a deferral. Ruth and Kathy were talking about Tommy and Ruth knows that Kathy has feelings for Tommy.
Ruth tells Kathy that Tommy could never see her like “a proper girlfriend” because she has slept with too any other boys. Kathy is upset by this and after the discussion and becomes distant and empty from Tommy and Ruth. Soon after, Kathy decides to leave the cottages and begin her training to become a career. CAREER: Kathy is proud of her work as a career. Kitty’s Hails friend Laura, tells her some rumors that Rut’s first donation was very difficult and has had to change careers lots due to personal preferences. Laura suggests that Kathy should become Rut’s career.
There are also rumors that Hails has closed recently. Kathy is shocked by this news and realizes hat times are changing and she must start to wrap up the lose ends of her life. Kathy goes to Dover to become Rut’s career. More rumors circulate among the donors about an abandoned boat in the middle of a marsh. Ruth hints that she would like to make a trip there and Kathy suggests that they should see Tommy too. Kathy learns that after she left to become a career, Ruth and Tommy drifted apart, but never formally broke up. When they go to meet Tommy he seems to be in good spirits and is happy to see Kathy and Ruth.
When they all go to see the boat Ruth is frailer than she remembers. On the way back Ruth apologizes to Kathy for the way she acted about pretending Kitty’s sexual urges were not normal, and apologizes for keeping Tommy and Kathy apart when they were clearly meant to be together. Ruth gives them Madame’s address because she wants them to get a deferral. Ruth also suggests that Kathy becomes Tombs career, which Kathy does a year after Ruth dies. Kathy enjoys being Tommy’s career and soon they form a sexual relationship. However, Kathy gets tied down by the idea that she wishes she has longer with Tommy when he was fully well.
Tommy has still been doing his earnings in the hope that they will get a deferral and so Kathy eventually agrees to it and set out a plan. Kathy and Tommy go to see Madame in Alliteration. Madame seems a little shocked and uncomfortable to see them. They explain to Madame about them coming to apply for a deferral. Tommy mentions the gallery and his theory about their art work showing if they are really in love. Somebody else was in the room with them and it was Miss Emily, now in a wheelchair. Miss Emily explains that the deferrals are rumors and are not true even though she wishes they were.
Both Miss Emily and Madame also explained that Hails lost its findings due to the ‘Martingale Scandal’. A scientist named James Martingale tired to create clones of superior intelligence, and when news of his work was leaked, the public became very uncomfortable with the idea that clones might somehow be superhuman. Miss Emily explains that Miss Lucy was fired from Hails for her different views about raising the children. She believed that the children should be told about their futures and origins, while Miss Emily believed that by doing that they would stop them from having happy childhoods.
On the way back Tommy asks Kathy to pull over. He has a tantrum in a muddy field, just as he used to as a child. After their trip to see Madame, Kathy and Tommy’s relationship becomes awkward and distant. They still talk about serious matters like Tommy’s fourth donation. Tommy decides that he no longer wants Kathy to be his career. He is getting weaker and he doesn’t want Kathy to watch him die. A few days after Tommy completes, she drives to Norfolk to a field with some trees in it, and imagines that all the lost things from her childhood, including Tommy, will appear in the field.