Crow tells Otis Amber and the others that she was told she was innocent. Ed Plum explains that the coroner determined Sandy McSouthers and Sam Westing both died of a heart attack. Plum then goes on to say he resigns from matters regarding the Westing estate, apologizing to all concerned. Judge Ford asks about a last document from the will, which Plum hands over to her. After Plum leaves, Judge Ford reads that document aloud. The seventeenth part wishes goodbye to the heirs, thanking them for participating in the game. The eighteenth part leaves equal shares of the deed to Sunset Towers to the heirs, and three ten thousand dollar checks - the first one forfeited by Table One, and the two that Judge Ford signed over to Sandy - to his former wife, Berthe Erica Crow. The nineteenth part wishes Crow a happy birthday and his heirs a happy Fourth of July.
The others want to know about the two hundred million dollars. Judge Ford says they lost the game, adding an "I think" as she looks at Turtle. Turtle gets up from Flora Baumbach's arms to the window and watches as the Westing house explodes in a burst of fireworks, setting the manor on fire.
The next morning, Turtle bicycles past the remains of Westing house
to meet the fourth identity of Windy Windkloppel, someone whose name completes
Sam Westing, Barney Northrup, and Sandy McSouthers. She had found this
person's Sunrise Lane address in the Westingtown phone book, the mansion
of Westing Paper Products' newly-elected chairman. She rings the doorbell
and is greeted by Doctor Sikes, who says she's expected. She goes to the
library, meets a stern-looking Julian R. Eastman. When she sees Eastman
smiling, Turtle says, "Hi, Sandy, I won!"
Ed Plum's resignation as executor of the Westing estate and handing over of the final papers to Judge Ford is another subtle reinforcement of the extended family of Westing heirs. Plum is an outsider after all, and the Westing inheritance has now become a strictly family matter best handled by those within the circle. Note also that this happens at Sunset Towers, showing how the extended family is moving on from the past of Sam Westing to their own futures - as will the novel in the remaining chapters. The destruction of the Westing house also works in the same symbolic fashion.
The choice of Sunrise Lane for Julian Eastman's mansion is of course
a play on Sunset Towers: where Sunset Towers is the close of Sam Westing
and Sandy McSouthers' lives, Sunrise Lane is the start of Julian Eastman's.
Turtle Wexler never told anybody the secret. Every Saturday afternoon she visits Julian Eastman, playing chess with him in the library. Along with the other Westing heirs and sobered member of the Good Salvation Soup Kitchen, Turtle attends the wedding of Crow to Otis Amber at Shin Hoo's restaurant: Jake Wexler gives away the bride, James Hoo is the best man, Angela Wexler and Sydelle Pulaski are the bridesmaids. Flora Baumbach altered Angela's wedding dress to fit Crow.
Judge Ford will never sole the Westing puzzle, but her debt to Sam Westing was repaid. She sells her share of Sunset Towers to pay for the education of Chris Theodorakis. Chris is lonely with Theo already off to college, and says goodbye to Judge Ford before she leaves Apartment 4D for good, asking if she will come see him. She promises to do so when she can, and to write.
Hoo's Little Foot-Eze becomes a success. James Hoo promises his business partner Madame Hoo they will go to China once they corner the Milwaukee market. Madame Hoo agrees to this but she now has good friends in Sunset Towers, doesn't have to cook in the restaurant, nor wear those uncomfortably tight dresses. As a result, she no longer is in a rush to return.
Sydelle Pulaski returns to her job as secretary to the president of Schultz Sausages, her ankle mended and crutches discarded. She gets all the attention she can take as an heiress. Friday, Mr. Schultz asks her to lunch.
Jake Wexler gives up being a podiatrist and a bookie, as he is appointed on Judge Ford's recommendation to the governor's inquiry panel for a state lottery. Grace Wexler, the new owner of Hoo's On First, is a great success, offering free meals to sports figures in town and thus generating more customers. Among the autographed photos of athletes is one from Doug Hoo. Angel Wexler's cheek will always have a scar, but she doesn't care as she studies for medical school. She returns the engagement ring to Denton Deere and refused the attention of Ed Plum. Outside of studying, she shops every week with Sydelle and spends Sundays at Otis and Crow's soup kitchen. Turtle spends her time at school, with Flora Baumbach, or at the library.
Crow and Otis Amber move into the apartment over the Good Salvation
Soup Kitchen, now renovated and expanded. Grace Wexler supervises the
decoration of the storefront mission.
Turtle never shares the secret of Julian Eastman's real identity, or even that she meets him every Saturday to play chess. This iron will and gift for deception is very much in keeping with her Uncle Sam, and perhaps a nod to the less admirable qualities that Sam Westing and Turtle Wexler share. Turtle seems to have reached a kind of familial detente with her parents and siste;, however her deception over Julian Eastman and preference for Flora Baumbach's company shows that she has supplanted her actual family with substitute parental figures in Flora and Eastman.
With the Westing game over and the heirs closer in a variety of ways, they can start to leave the actual building yet still retain ties with each other, as seen in Judge Ford and Chris Theodorakis' respective departures. The changes in careers for several characters also corresponds to happier lives for them, as their sense of identity now corresponds better to their virtues and desires: James Hoo as an inventor, Sun Lin Hoo as a business woman, Jake Wexler as a government official, Grace as a restaurateur, Angela Wexler as a med school student, and even Sydelle Pulaski as an "heiress" (making her suitable marriage material for her boss).
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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