How It All Goes Down
Secrets and Lies
- This chapter is considerably less supernatural than the last.
- Clary spends time sketching in her room and chatting on the phone with Simon. Oh, and complaining about her mother.
- Simon's been trying to think of a band name. He misses the best one when he and Clary joke about an "orgy in Hoboken." (2.20) Dude, Orgy in Hoboken would be an awesome band name.
- At one point while they're talking, Simon mentions that Clary's mother has scars along her arms and back, but Clary says she hasn't ever seen them. How could Simon possibly know that? Or why would Simon make something like that up?
- We meet Clary's Uncle Luke, who isn't really her uncle—just a good life-long friend of her mother.
- Their relationship is platonic, because Clary's father, Jonathan, died in a car accident before Clary was born. Her mother never moved on.
- Take a moment to sniffle into some tissues while Luke lugs some empty boxes into the apartment.
- Not content to feel crazy in private, Clary asks Luke what he would do if he ever saw people that no one else could see.
- Luke doesn't tell her to get her eyes—or her brain—checked. He just tells her, "You see the world in ways that other people don't. […] It doesn't make you crazy—just different" (2.46).
- Just then, Clary's mother, Jocelyn, comes in and cuts their little bonding moment short.
- Jocelyn says that they're going to pack up and move to Luke's farmhouse for the summer, which means Clary has to drop out of her summer school art program and move away from her friends.
- With a shrug, Clary says "alright," and helps them to start packing.
- Ha, just kidding. Naturally, Clary gets angry and tries to come up with a plan to stay in New York, sans mother.
- When she eavesdrops on her mother and Luke, Clary hears them mention Clary's father and the name Bane. Bane? Who's Bane?
- Just as things are getting heated, Simon shows up and whisks Clary away to get Mexican food and cool off. Nothing like super spicy food to calm the mind.
- They see a strange possibly not-human man as they pass by Madame Dorothea's psychic shop downstairs. Well, Clary sees it, then she seems to forget about it right after.