![]() ![]() ![]() Yet the confirmation of their liaison sends Teresa spiraling she caves to her immediate emotions and does things she truly regrets. It’s not as if she was caught off guard by the emotional affair she had an inkling since Bill and Rene first met. Not only did Teresa’s former boyfriend go behind her back and audition her private music to a nightclub, Bill became interested in Teresa’s best friend, Rene. In between her companions’ shared narration, Teresa intermittently divulges her own drama, starting with how Bill betrayed her not once but twice. Yet as they all get closer to some kind of end point, it becomes clear the two strangers’ turbulent tale of the past has everything to do with Teresa’s future. Pike reunites the high-school sweethearts at a mini-mart, only to then have them die in one another’s arms.įree and Poppy’s epic story has a tendency to eclipse everything else going on in Road to Nowhere, including the main character. Which is why what happens next especially hurts. Unlike John, though, Candy manages to turn things around she works hard to become a nurse and take care of her son, makes up with her parents, and finds herself a stable guy. And Poppy later explains how Candy had an affair with a professor, got pregnant, and finally flunked out of college. From losing two fingers on the job to becoming addicted to painkillers and heroin, John is never given a fair shot at life. John and Candy are each put through hell. From there Road to Nowhere shows its fangs as John’s tragic life is played out in excruciating detail, and Candy’s trek into adulthood is one hurdle after another. Sadly, this unfortunate incident drove them apart for a number of years. They eventually fell in love despite their differences, and up until a very bad day, they were destined to be together. These two entwined souls first met in high school John was poor, abrasive and brainy, while Candy was rich, creative and prone to reverie. Free describes them with both deep knowledge and passion. It’s not hard to understand why Teresa would be so captivated by John and Candy. All the while, Teresa’s left wrist mysteriously aches and her body grows feverish with every leg of the long trip. At least the one she believes to be true. In exchange, Teresa reluctantly explains the cause of her unexpected journey. It’s a story full of heartache and shock, and light and darkness. To break the ice and keep things lively inside the car, the two travelers entertain Teresa with a long and winding anecdote about their friends, John Gerhart and Candice “Candy” Manville. They don’t get along in the slightest, however their specific kind of bickering suggests they were a couple at some point. And Freedom “Free” Jack and Poppy Corn are as amusing as they are uniquely named. Her admittedly weird traveling mates, ones with a rich and entangled history, are the distraction she sorely needs from her own problems. Teresa indeed says “Bill was one of the reasons she was running away,” but she also adds he was “not her only one, nor her biggest.”Ī naïve driver giving a lift to strangers hardly ends well in fiction, but Teresa feels lost and lonely. Of course there is always more to the story than meets the eye. All readers really know so far is this 18-year-old is upset about something her (ex) boyfriend Bill did, and she thinks running off will make her feel better and him worse. And the inciting incident causing Teresa Chafey to suddenly take off is unclear until the last couple of chapters. In typical Pike fashion, Road to Nowhere starts off near the middle rather than at the beginning. The path ahead of her is unclear, but one thing’s for sure - Teresa’s life will never be the same after she picks up two hitchhikers along the way. Christopher Pike ’s 1993 novel puts its troubled protagonist behind the wheel and shadows her every move and thought as she drives along the California coast one fateful night. In spite of its title, Road to Nowhere has a conclusive ending.
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