We Are All the Same in the Dark

The girl is missing an eye, like Wyatt’s father, Frank Branson. Wyatt believes the girl is “another of God’s tests” and calls her Angel (10). Dandelions are laid out around the girl in a circle, and Wyatt notes that she reminds him of his sister, Trumanell. He picks the girl up and brings her to his truck, and while he is carrying her, she blows a dandelion in his face.

Wyatt drives home, where (he claims) Trumanell is waiting on the porch. He recalls the day, when he was two and Trumanell was four, when their father killed their mother; he says Trumanell would “take a bad thing away with her bare hands” (14), comforting him in the face of their father’s abuse.

Wyatt brings Angel into the house. A knock on the door startles Angel, and she sees Wyatt’s gun.

The narrative switches to the point of view of Odette Tucker, a young policewoman. She goes to Wyatt Branson’s house, responding to a tip that Wyatt “has a girl out there” (26).

She recalls the “fury” at the Branson place 10 years earlier: citizens of the town frantically searching for the body of 19-year-old Trumanell Branson, with her father, Frank, and brother, Wyatt, being the prime suspects in her murder. Odette reflects on how her own late father, also a police officer, told her not to come back to the town to find the truth about Trumanell. Despite his warning, Odette moved here five years ago after her father’s death. Wyatt is still the subject of suspicion thanks to a recent true crime documentary about Trumanell’s case.

Wyatt answers the door, pointing a gun. Odette urges him to let her into the house so she can follow the tip she received, but he hesitates. She tells him that “what happened last month was a mistake” (29); Odette and Wyatt had sex, causing her husband Finn to leave her. Wyatt relents and lets her in, telling her to say hello to Trumanell.

Odette finds the girl lying on Wyatt’s couch. Wyatt tells Odette how he found the girl on the side of the road. She has not spoken since Wyatt found her. Wyatt urges Odette not to call anyone, saying the girl would be placed in foster care and other children would bully her for her missing eye. He asks Odette to “show [the girl] that [they] have something in common” (36), and Odette shows Angel her prosthetic leg.

Odette recounts how she lost her leg when she was 16, on the night Trumanell disappeared. She was supposed to go to Wyatt’s house for a date, but when she showed up at his house, Wyatt told her to run. She sped off in her car, and she and the car were later found in a ditch, her leg crushed.

Odette takes Angel back to her truck; she still refuses to talk, but Odette tells her not to tell anyone that Wyatt was the one who found her, knowing it will bring more suspicion to him.

Rather than report the missing girl, Odette brings Angel to her cousin Maggie, who runs an unofficial safe house for young girls. Odette describes her relationship with her cousin; Maggie’s father, the town pastor, is Odette’s uncle, and she and Odette are close. Odette and Maggie talk, Maggie imploring her to stop trying to protect Wyatt and urging her to be careful.

Odette and Wyatt go to the spot where he found Angel so Odette can examine the scene; she wonders if Wyatt hurt Angel. She notes the circle of dandelions and recalls that Wyatt has an aversion to them. After investigating, she returns to the truck, where Wyatt is waiting. He wants to get back home because “Trumanell is going to be worried” (56); he believes he can still talk to her and that she still lives in their house. Odette is getting frustrated when a truck suddenly swerves on the road.

Wyatt yanks Odette out of the way of the truck. They get in the car, and he drives back to his house. When they arrive, Wyatt gives Odette something of Angel’s and says goodbye. Odette demands to know if he killed Trumanell or his father, and he does not respond. All the lights go on in the Branson house, and Odette leaves, reflecting, “I’m no longer the passenger in his life. I’m the driver in mine” (61).

Odette visits the police station and goes to her desk—formerly her father’s desk. She searches the database for missing girls with one eye and finds that Angel has not been reported missing. She looks up an ocularist who can make Angel a prosthetic eye and emails the chief to ask for time off so she can investigate Trumanell’s case on her own. She has a key around her neck that used to belong to her father and uses to it unlock the desk drawer.

In the drawer is a bottle of vodka and a box. The box is full of letters, notes, and photos—one series of photos depicts Odette’s uncle, the pastor, baptizing her father in the lake. Odette recalls that her father asked her uncle to baptize him every time he shot and killed someone. Odette thinks about the lake—a place her father loved—wondering if Trumanell is down there and, fleetingly, “if [Odette’s] father helped put her there” (69). Odette’s father received the call at the Branson place and was the only police officer who responded: There is no record of the call, and no other police officers or firefighters came for two hours because they were saving Odette after her crash. Odette shoves the drawer closed but notices scratches near the keyhole.

Odette examines the desk drawer and notices that someone tried to pick the lock. Something is stuck and keeping the drawer from closing: a piece of paper with a phone number on it. There is a plastic bag taped under the drawer, filled with what looks like marijuana. Odette leaves the station, but on the way home she pulls out the plastic bag again, wondering if the substance inside is actually dandelions.

Odette and Angel go to the ocularist for a prosthetic eye, and Angel is terrified. The ocularist examines her and determines that whatever happened to her eye was an older injury and was repaired by a surgeon. He promises to make her an eye that will perfectly resemble the other. He shares a story about his own missing eye and talks about the prosthetics he creates for other patients. He offers to paint something personal on the eye that only Angel will see, and she asks for a dandelion.

Angel and Odette take a break for lunch before returning to the ocularist. He fits Angel’s eye in place, and it looks identical to her real one. Angel cries, overjoyed. Odette suspects someone is hunting Angel; her new eye will now serve as a disguise.