Nine Months Book Summary and Study Guide

They both admit that a third baby was not on the radar. One day during her last trimester Sonia calls her friend Clara and asks her to bring the boys home from their their half day of daycare and to call George so he can pick them up. She won't tell Clara where she is going because she isn't sure.

She takes off in her car heading North on 95. She is heading towards Massachusetts leaving New York behind. She stops at a rest area where a young man who may be twenty, she can't tell but he's young and asks for cigarette. He obliges and then she asks to get into his truck and sit for a spell. He's weirded out at the request but lets her get inside. He joins her and they talk about nothing. She decides she wants to have sex with him and he can see she is pregnant. She isn't worried since a lot of men are turned on by pregnant women. She climbs on top of him and they have sex when she comes out of the restroom after cleaning herself up he's gone. She doesn't care. She wanted to experience someone other than Dick.

After ten years of the same man she wanted a change and feels no regret. She used to enjoy sex with dating three and four guys at a time while hanging out with local bands as a groupie. She misses the freedom of being able to let loose.

Sonia gets a hotel room and plots her next move. She heads towards Connecticut where she stops at a bank and cleans out the account Dick has fortified by the tune of seven-thousand dollars. She finds a Holiday Inn Express will suit her needs for the moment and checks in. Music is next on the impromptu agenda. Sonia reminisces about her groupie days and realizes she was a follower, it was her friend Katrina who slept with the lead singers. She'll look Katrina up but first she wants to stop at one of their favorite haunts.

Amazingly Stan, Katrina's ex boyfriend is on the scene. He looks terrible she can't believe how poorly he's aged. Still lanky, but he looks used up. Stan is happy to see Sonia it's been ten or fifteen years. She watches him and sees he has a heroin habit. He asks after her life noticing her pregnancy wants to know if her husband is with her. He'd heard she'd gotten married. When she says no his wheels start clicking. She asks after Katrina.

He surprises her telling her that Katrina is in AA and a practicing vegetarian, married with two boys. Sonia says she is going to look Katrina up she'd wanted to call but decided to check out the bar where they spent so many nights first. Stan asks for money and she says no. She doesn't feel comfortable supporting junk, it destroys lives. Stan offers her oral sex and says he's really good. Repulsed at the idea of his skanky lips on her private parts disgusts her. Ewww! He tries for money again and is turned down a second and then a third time, when he says he will send her a check when he gets paid.

She calls Katrina and is invited over. Katrina has changed, she a vegetarian, and lives totally green, and she has renounced sex. Her husband Joe is free to get it where he can. They have a son and she is totally into raising him a certain way. Joe hits Sonia up for sex and she isn't interested. He assures her that Katrina won't mind. Sonia reminds him that Katrina is a friend and friends don't get don't get down like that. Katrina encourages her to get back home to her boys. She stays the night and heads out the next morning. She had a nice visit but man Katrina sure had changed! She is going to go home just not right away.

Sonia calls Dick to check in and let him know she's alive. He is hurt of course. He doesn't understand how she could leave her children or him. She's pregnant for God's sake. She tells him not to come after her that she needed to do this to find herself. She asks to speak to the boys, Dick doesn't think that is a good idea, it will make things worse. If she wants to talk to the she should come home. Christmas is in a few days. She declines. She's not coming home yet.

She heads out again, towards Minnesota. Sonia decides to splurge at a nice Marriott. When she orders dinner she runs into Larry another old friend. They are happy to see each other he suggests they stop by and see a mutual friend, Larissa. Larissa bought a trailer home with money she made from stripping when they were nineteen. She has two sons, who who are glued to the television watching a kid's show.

Sonia, Larry, and Larissa catch up drinking beers and smoking weed. After a few hours Larissa invites them to leave she has to be up early. Her boys had already passed out in front of the television. Larissa also encourages her to get off the highway and go home to her family.

She still isn't ready. Her next stop is Boulder to see her sister Nicky. Seven years apart they have never been close. Nicky went to college out West and Sonia headed to New York to be an artist. Nicky lectures hard she and her husband are raising their seven-year-old son whom Sonia has only seen as an infant to shoot game. He's on his second gun already and his dad encourages him to shoot their dinner almost every night.

It it is clear to Sonia that she and Nicky will never be close as they go at each other with insults. Their mother wanted to be an artist and there is an etching in Nicky's bathroom. Sonia doesn't own one and assumes Nicky has been gifted a good number over the years. She grabs the one on the bathroom wall and puts it under her shirt. Nicky goes in the bathroom as soon as Sonia comes out and sees the empty frame on the bathroom counter. Sonia runs to her car with Nicky on her heels. She gets in and quickly pulls off. An act that probably didn't help in the way of sisterly bonding.

Still needing to get to Indiana to see her childhood home she is filled with nostalgia at the sight of the house. She parks and rings the bell. A woman answers and Sonia explains she grew up in the house and would like to see it. The owner is happy to do so asking after Sonia's parents. Sonia explores the house ending up in her old room which is now an upstairs office. Totally filled with memories she leaves without thanking her host.

She checks in with Dick again who tells her that Clara called Social Services on her, but that he'd taken care of it. He wants her back home. She still isn't ready.

Instead she heads to Wisconsin to see Philmore her old lover and college art teacher. He berates her for being selfish. He doesn't think she ever wanted to be a mother. Not the first two times and certainly not this time. He goes off on her dogging her out for being indecisive and immature. He tells her she was not invited to his house and that is basically a pig. The reunion didn't go well at all.

She calls Dick yet again. He urges her to fly home. She says she will drive, but this time she's wrong. Sonia gets as far as Baltimore when she realizes the baby is coming. The hospital is in an urban area and she is quickly waited on bypassing people who have been there hours waiting to be scene. She figures out it is because she has insurance and the people of color in need of being seen just like her, don't.

She is admitted to a private room and the triage nurse is alarmed that she's traveled without her husband this close to her delivery date. She gives birth to a baby girl. Dick and the boys come to the hospital to drive her home. They'll worry about the car later. Dick is understandably pissed, but is glad his daughter is healthy and safe. He and Sonia decide to talk about things. She needed this vacation and time for herself.

Best scene in story: My favorite scene was when Sonia and Nicky argued and realized that even though they were sisters they would never be close.

Opinion about the main character: I disliked that Sonia took such huge risks with her family.