- Neil thinks it's his last day at the Patimkin house, but Brenda tells him to unpack and stay an extra week.
- He's stay until Labor Day (the first Monday in September).
- The day after Labor Day, Brenda goes back to school, and Neil goes back to work.
- His and Brenda's impending separation weighs on Neil's mind.
- It's hard for him to be excited about the rest of the week.
- He unpacks and feels good because Brenda hasn't suggested breaking up, and her invitation to stay an extra week just proves it.
- When Brenda and the family go to meet Harriet at the airport, Neil calls Aunt Gladys.
- She's not thrilled that Neil is staying an extra week.
- She's also concerned if he has enough clean underwear.
- Neil explains he's been washing them in the sink, but Aunt Gladys doesn't think that method gets them clean enough.
- She warns him that if he stays in suburbia for too long, he'll be "too good" (6.19) for them.
- He assures her this could never be the case.
- In the kitchen, Neil finds Carlotta eating fruit, singing and dancing while she works.
- Neil goes outside and practices his golf swing.
- If he misses Brenda this much when she's just at the airport, think how much he'll miss her when she's at school in Boston.
- Harriet is becoming a reality, not just somebody they talked about. This makes Brenda's leaving seem more like a reality.
- This makes him start thinking about marrying Brenda.
- They love each other, but something seems wrong, though he isn't sure if the problems are just in his mind or not.
- Neil does ask Brenda something when she comes home by herself a little later.
- Harriet's plane is late, and Brenda has come to let Carlotta know that she doesn't need to cook dinner. They'll eat with Harriet at the airport.
- Brenda changes into a sexy yellow dress, and then sits with Neil in the grass.
- Neil says he needs to ask her something.
- He wants her to be fitted for a diaphragm (a birth control device).
- She thinks they are being safe enough as it is. They are already using some unspecified method of birth control.
- Neil says that it will be more pleasurable for him with a diaphragm.
- (This might mean they are using condoms, but condoms are never mentioned.)
- Brenda says she thinks that getting a diaphragm is "silly" (6.57).
- Neil says that she thinks it's silly because he's the one who asked her to do it.
- They argue about it, and Brenda walks off.
- Neil accuses her of being selfish, and she accuses him back.
- She doesn't understand why he's bugging her so much about it.
- He says he just wants her to do it because he asked her to.
- Brenda walks off; he can hear her practicing her golf swing.
- Joining her, Neil asks if his request was terrible.
- She says that it was.
- Trying to explain her reluctance, Brenda says she doesn't feel ready for something like that. She thinks it's too deliberate, and is afraid it will change them.
- Brenda says she doesn't want to have to lie to the doctor.
- (Many doctors would only provide birth control for women who claimed they were married. Remember, this story is set in the late 1950s.)
- Neil says that if she goes to the Margret Sanger clinic in New York, she wouldn't need to lie.
- (Margret Sanger was a hugely influential figure in women's rights, and a birth control activist. Read more about her here.)
- Brenda says it will make her feel like a "whore" (6.106) he had for the summer.
- Neil calls her "selfish egotistical b****" (6.107).
- She says if she's such a b****, why would she be inviting him to have sex with her at her house.
- Brenda complains that her mother is already giving her a hard time, and now Neil has joined in.
- She disappears for the afternoon.
- When he meets Harriet that evening, she seems nice, polite, and shallow, a good match for Ron.
- When Harriet calls Mrs. Patimkin "Mother" and "Mother Patimkin" Brenda goes up to bed.
- She and Neil haven't talked.
- He goes to her room and she lets him in.
- They talk some more about the diaphragm, and Brenda says Neil doesn't understand things from her point of view.
- When they are unable to communicate, Neil leaves her alone.
- The next day Brenda and Harriet go to New York to buy their wedding clothes.
- Neil and Mrs. Patimkin finally talk.
- She is making calls for Hadassah (a Jewish woman's volunteer organization).
- Mrs. Patimkin wants to know if Neil is active in B'nai Brith (here, a Jewish youth organization). She also wants to know whether he attends regular Jewish services and what temple his family attends.
- He's rather evasive with his answers, since he doesn't attend.
- Mrs. Patimkin discusses several denominations of Judiasm—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. (Basically Orthodox Jews adhere most strictly to Jewish religious traditions, and Reform least strictly. Conservative is in the middle.)
- This is lost on Neil and he asks her if she's read Martin Buber (a famous and influential Jewish philosopher), which she has not.
- Finally, she asks Neil if he'll drive to Newark to pick up some pattern samples for the wedding silverware. They are at Patimkin Sinks with Mr. Patimkin.
- Neil agrees.
- The Patimkin Sink business is in the section of Newark where the most black people live.
- It used to be the Jewish section.
- Just for a moment, Neil wonders if he'll see the boy from the library.
- He gets to Patimkin Kitchen and Bathroom Sinks.
- Ron and Mr. Patimkin are there; all the other workers are black.
- Neil can hear Ron telling the workers that they need to eat lunch at different times.
- Mr. Patimkin asks Neil into his office.
- After talking on the phone to a business associate, Mr. Patimkin complains that Ron's college education hasn't prepared him for unloading trucks and the other work he needs to do here.
- Neil says he'd have a hard time with it too.
- Mr. Patimkin talks about the value of hard work, then tells Ron to let the workers eat together.
- Ron explains that with his method, there will always be workers available in the shop.
- Mr. Patimkin tells him not to get so complicated.
- When Mr. Patimkin gives Neil the silver patterns he seems proud to provide expensive things for his kids.
- Neil drives out to the mountains, to a deer preserve. He watches the children with the deer, looks at the view, and thinks of Brenda. They've been up here together.
- He thinks Brenda is a real original, that there is no other woman like her.
- He's afraid that her money will make her less unique, and he questions whether he's loving the real Brenda. He lets one of the deer lick his hand and feels a little better.
- Back at the Patimkin house, Brenda is modeling her bridesmaid dress and looking more beautiful than ever.
- After the modeling, Brenda is weepy and Neil asks what's wrong.
- She says she called the Margaret Sanger clinic today when she was in the city. They asked her if she was married, and she got nervous and hung up.
- He says he'll take her to New York, to a nice office.
- She asks if he'll go in with her, and he says that wouldn't be believable. The husband would be working and would never go with the wife to the office.
- Brenda is still expressing moral qualms about the whole matter, but Neil assures her that she's doing the right thing.
- Finally, she seems to give in.