Anita and Me: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Meena leaves Nanima alone with mama, who is also on holiday. She goes to Anita’s house, where Tracey answers the door, saying that Anita is at Sherrie’s farm. Noticing how much Tracey has grown, and that her facial features express both gentleness and sorrow, Meena convinces Tracey to go with her. Tracey takes her dog along. When Tracey suddenly calls the dog by its name, “Nigger,” Meena, angry, explains to her that this is insulting, and Tracey, who did not know that, apologizes, adding that she personally wanted to call it something else.

When the two girls reach Sherrie’s farm, Meena chats with Sherrie’s father for a few moments. He tells her that he will be paid for the fact that the motorway is passing through his farm and that his family will move out soon afterwards. After hearing this, Meena feels that everyone is moving away except her.

Although Meena expects Anita to get angry at her, Anita merely complains about Tracey being there. When Fat Sally challenges Meena, Anita defends her, saying that she is her “mate” and can therefore be here. Meena wonders for a moment if she will finally be Anita’s equal.

Sherrie tells the girls to tie the dog up so that it doesn’t scare the horses, and Anita insists on using Fat Sally’s belt to tie him up. The girls then discover that it is not a belt, but an expensive scarf that belongs to Sally’s mother. Anita, however, says that Sally’s mother is rich enough to buy herself another one. The two girls get into an argument, and Sally tries to argue that her family is not rich.

The discussion turns violent when Anita mentions Sally’s fancy school, arguing that the nuns at her school are too ugly to have sex. Sally throws herself on Anita, ripping hair out of hear head, while Anita digs her nails underneath Sally’s cheeks. Sally screams that everyone in the village says that Anita and her mother Deirdre are “slags,” and Meena is shocked to notice Anita’s acceptance of this violence, as though Anita had made Sally turn violent.

In the meantime, Tracey’s poodle has gone wild because of the fight and succeeds in breaking free of his leash. He runs out as quickly as he can, while Sally stops fighting to retrieve her scarf and leaves, soon followed by Tracey, who wants to find her dog. After the fight, with bald patches on her head, Anita calmly stands up to ride Sherrie’s horse Trixie. When she does so, Meena is awed by Anita’s horseback riding talent. She has a natural, completely fearless attitude on the horse, full of joy, which makes Meena feel better about everything that happened.

After Sherrie comments that it will be wonderful for Anita to have a horse so that they can ride together, Meena realizes that neither girl knows that Anita will never have a pony, and that Sherrie is unaware of the fact that her family will soon move. Meena suddenly feels pity for Anita, realizing that Anita perhaps needs her more than Meena needs Anita.

As Meena prepares herself to ride Trixie, they hear the sound of a car accident and run outside to see Tracey crying near the dog’s body on the road, explaining that the car hit it and drove away. Hairy Neddy steps out of his car to help. He concludes that the dog is going to die soon but that he could never kill it. Anita then appears, with a mocking look on her face, and prepares to throw a rock at her dog’s head. However, both Hairy Neddy and Sherrie prevent her from doing so. After releasing the rock, Anita goes limp.

When Meena returns home, she realizes that she does not even know how she walked home. Her mother tells her that she is early and asks her if she had a good ride, to which Meena replies automatically. She is overwhelmed by the image of the dead dog, which she realizes she has hated for his name instead of his personality. She concludes that this illogical hatred makes her similar to Sam Lowbridge, with whom she senses she will soon have another confrontation.