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We Need to Talk About Kevin Chapter 17: January 19, 2001 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Eva flings Kevin across the room so hard that he breaks his arm.
  • Kevin doesn't cry. Creepy.
  • Eva takes Kevin to the hospital, saying he fell.
  • The doctor puts a cast on Kevin's arm, and they go home.
  • When Franklin comes home, he asks Kevin what happened. Not Eva. Kevin.
  • But Kevin lies. He says he fell off the changing table onto a dump truck.
  • Speaking of dump, Kevin stops using diapers that very day. Looks like Eva's attack worked.
  • But Eva wonders why Kevin didn't tell the truth, and she feels like she owes him for keeping her secret.
  • Later, Kevin is back to his trouble-making self.
  • Kevin loosens the fork of a neighbor's bike, and the neighbor boy gets hurt when he flies off it.
  • As usual, Franklin defends Kevin.
  • Eva has a surprising reaction to this confrontation: she wants another kid.
  • Eva wants a baby girl, since it's basically Franklin and Kevin vs. Eva all the time. She wants an even team.
  • Franklin thinks Eva will simply "freeze out" (17.121) another kid, and he refuses to comply.
  • Later, Eva tells Kevin that the neighbor had an accident.
  • "He thinks he's so cool with that bike" (17.129), Kevin says, even though Eva never mentioned a bike. Dum dum dummmm.