Monday's Not Coming

The detective Claudia spoke to about Monday, Detective Carson, showed up at her house one day, along with another police officer, Detective Woods. Detective Carson was shocked when he recognized Claudia, but he pretended they’d never met. 

Mrs. Charles denied any involvement in Monday’s death, claiming Monday ran away before Mrs. Charles unexpectedly found her body in the freezer. Due to the bodies’ decomposition, the causes of death were difficult to determine.

Claudia decided the guilt of not listening to her initially was enough punishment for Detective Carson. She agreed to answer all questions cooperatively, and the detectives interrogated the family about Monday and the timeline of events. Ma told them that the last time she saw Monday was a week after summer break began. She remembered exactly what Monday was wearing because the clothes were given to her by Claudia—and they were the clothes found on her body.

Monday also had a journal’s key with her, though the police didn’t find a journal at the crime scene. Claudia lied, saying she had no idea about Monday’s journal, but April had told the detectives that Claudia had it. Claudia then retrieved the journal and asked to have it back after they were done reviewing it for evidence; she hadn’t finished reading it yet. The family sobbed together as Claudia finally dropped the journal, her last piece of Monday into the bag. When he asked if she had anything else from the house, Claudia lied again, thinking of Monday’s copy of Flowers in the Attic hidden in her room.

Claudia finally returned to school one day so she didn’t have to be home alone. Some boys started bullying her, saying awful things about Monday. Jacob and Shayla tried to stop them. Claudia started shouting in her and Monday’s secret language. Mrs. Valente came to her rescue, taking Claudia to the nurse, who sedated her. Claudia didn’t attend school again.

Michael leaves school early to spend time with Claudia. She asks him why he cares about her so much. He tells her about the last time he saw Monday. He had come by to drop off food for the church barbecue on the day Monday had visited Ma; Monday was wearing the clothes they found her in. He thought Monday was Claudia, as they looked so alike. The thought of this tragedy happening to Claudia helped Michael realize his deep feelings for her. Claudia kisses him for the first time since the drunken party.

She gets home late, explaining to Ma that she’s remembered what happened on her last day of school. Ma reveals that she hasn’t been honest with Claudia. Monday came to talk to her after summer vacation started but couldn’t get any words out. Ma drove Monday home, and Monday started crying when they reached her house. Ma called CFSA anonymously for a welfare check; she thinks this may have set Mrs. Charles off and culminated in Monday’s death. Ma also thought that Monday had been removed from the home permanently, which is why she didn’t try harder to find her. She apologizes to Claudia.

Claudia decides her color is white: pure, virginal, blank, boring white. She finds it hard to keep track of the story. All the colors thrown at her just melt off, nothing sticking. White also reflects her openness both to change and to new beginnings.

Tip files a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the city, alleging wrongful death in the cases of Monday and August. The lawsuit prompts a discussion of who is responsible for each citizen’s well-being: “your family, the government, or your community?” (421).

Claudia finds April, who now has a job. April is relieved that Claudia is back in the present, telling her she’s only done this twice. Claudia asks why April played along. Tears welling, she responds that Claudia never gave up searching for Monday. April also says she and Tuesday are both in therapy, and both are in school again. Claudia reveals that she is in therapy, too. She has enrolled in high school, although not the one Monday had hoped they would attend.

The night of Claudia’s big dance recital arrives. Daddy finds her backstage in her white and pink ensemble. He gives her a gift: photocopies of pages of Monday’s journal. The entries are full of love and appreciation for Claudia as an artist, a dancer, and a friend:

I wish she wasn’t so scared all the time, though. She’s afraid people will treat her different cause of the way she read and write. But if they got to know her, they’d see how smart and cool she is. Then everyone gonna want to be her friend. I can’t believe out of all the people in the world, she chose me, ME, to be her best friend. Well, we ain’t just best friends, more like sisters (425).

Claudia is in heaven. Megan gives her encouragement, telling Claudia how brave she is for dancing after everything that’s happened. Claudia gives an inspired performance, feeling Monday dancing alongside her every step.

Claudia writes to Monday, telling her how well she’s doing. Based on her therapist’s advice that she needs closure, Claudia returns to Monday’s old house. Michael drives her there in the car his father bought him.

When they arrive at the boarded-up house, Michael plays a podcast episode of Mrs. Charles’s confession. She matter-of-factly describes August’s murder: He was putting his hands on his sisters, beating them and biting them. When he bit baby Tuesday, Mrs. Charles choked him to death. She then had April put his body in the freezer because she didn’t want to deal with it. 

She says Monday was always a “fast girl,” with lots of boys after her. One day, Monday came home and talked about leaving her. Mrs. Charles beat her up and locked her in the upstairs closet for a few days. Every time she made too much noise, begging for water, Mrs. Charles kicked her until she quieted. The last time, she didn’t get up. Mrs. Charles didn’t know how she got into the freezer. “I didn’t put her there. I would’ve let her rot in that closet” (430). She concludes the interview by saying she knows exactly what she did. She offers no excuses and isn’t sorry for it.

Claudia goes up to the house and listens at the door. She hears no TV blaring or freezer buzzing. She knows Monday’s body isn’t in that house, and that her friend is truly gone, freed from the horrors within those walls. 

A neighbor sitting on a stoop offers some tea to Claudia, recognizing her from Monday’s description, which pleases Claudia. When the neighbor says she often saw Monday crying on the Charles’s stoop, Claudia asks her why she never said anything. The neighbor responds that people aren’t as close anymore, as a community; long stretches of time pass between her visits with her own grandchildren. She thought Monday was just away from home.

Both Claudia and the neighbor have nightmares about the house. The neighbor tells Claudia that the freezer’s buzzing still lingered after it was removed. Claudia asks her how the neighbor stopped hearing the buzzing in her mind. The neighbor tells her she changed her perspective on the sound, to see it as the humming of a pretty song. As she drives away with Michael, Claudia hears and feels Monday humming along with them.