My Sister’s Keeper: 5. Tuesday: Anna Summary & Analysis

Anna recounts how she used to pretend that she was simply passing through her family, which felt plausible to her due to her lack of resemblance to her parents or siblings. She used to sit in the hospital cafeteria and look at nearby families, wondering which one of them would reunite with her and whisk her away to a more glamorous life in another country. Even so, Anna admits that the first person she would want to call and tell about this turn of fate would be Kate.

Anna accompanies Kate to her dialysis session, where Anna’s donated blood cycles through her body via a catheter in her chest. The procedure isn’t painful, but it is boring, so Kate sometimes plays games with Anna to pass the time. Today, she reads a magazine. Sara is reading a pamphlet about kidney transplants and tells Kate that they won’t take out her old kidney, just transplant in the new one. Kate is creeped out by this, imagining a coroner cutting into her and seeing three kidneys. Sara points out that the point of the transplant is so that no coroner will cut into her any time soon. Anna thinks about how the new kidney they’re discussing is hers. Although kidney donation is considered safe, there is a 1 in 3,000 chance of death and potential long-term complications.

Vern Stackhouse, the sheriff, enters the room. He’s quite close with the Fitzgeralds, having gotten Jesse out of trouble a few times. Sara receives him warmly, but the atmosphere in the room chances when Vern reveals that he’s come to serve her papers. Apologetically, he quickly hands over the papers and leaves. The document is Anna’s petition for medical emancipation. Sara moves to confront Anna, but Kate is suddenly overwhelmed with pain and cries for a nurse. Anna takes the opportunity to run out of the room.

Anna hides in the maternity ward. There, she watches a new father talk happily on the phone about his new daughter’s measurements. Anna wonders if her parents did this when she came along, or if they only cared about her cord blood. Anna congratulates the new father, but what she really wants to tell him is to hold his baby tight so that she’ll never do what Anna has done to her parents. She calls Jesse to pick her up and, at the entrance, is met by Vern, who tells her that her mother’s worried about her. Anna tells him to tell her that she’s alright and then leaves with Jesse, who tells her that Sara paged Brian away from work. According to Jesse, the last time Sara did this was when Kate was diagnosed.

Later, Sara, Brian, and Kate arrive home. Kate is sent upstairs, and Sara demands that Anna call her lawyer and retract her lawsuit. Brian comes between them, insisting they give Anna a chance to explain. Anna says that she doesn’t want to do it anymore, to which Sara says that none of them want to, but they don’t have a choice. Anna, however, knows that she does have a choice. Brian asks her if the three of them can talk without a lawyer having to be involved. Anna, who can smell smoke on him and knows he’s come from a fire for this, is ashamed. She tells him that she can’t and says she’s invisible. Sara slaps her.

Anna recounts a flashback from when Kate was eight and she was five in which the two had a fight. Because the two girls share a room, they divide it in half, with Kate letting Anna pick a side. Anna picks the side with the Barbies and art supplies, which she thinks is a smart move until lunchtime, when Kate—with her side including the door—is able to leave and Anna is not. Anna stubbornly stays in the room until Sara comes up some time later. Anna protests at being picked up and carried out of the room, so Sara leaves and comes back with various towels and pillows, which she uses to make “lily pads.” Using this, Anna is able to jump onto the items and leave the room, following her mother out.

In the present, while Anna is taking a shower, Kate comes in to talk to her. She says that Anna still has the opportunity to change her mind, and Anna says that she knows this. After some silence, Kate tearfully says that Anna is the only friend that she has. Although Anna denies it, she knows that it’s true; Kate hasn’t been able to keep a consistent friend group due to her time out of school and her struggle to relate to her healthy peers. Anna retorts that she’s not Kate’s friend, but her sister—to which Kate responds that she can bear to lose Anna as a sister, but not as a friend. Kate leaves, and Anna admits to herself that she can’t bear to lose Kate either.

When Kate falls asleep that night, Anna gets up and places her palm under Kate’s nose, thinking about how easily she could suffocate her and how it wouldn’t be much different from what she’s doing now. When she hears footsteps, she dives into bed and pretends to be asleep, eavesdropping on her parents. Sara says that Anna is just doing this for attention, but Brian suggests that maybe Anna has a point. When Anna hears the door close, she assumes her parents have gone, but Sara is by her bedside when she rolls over. When Anna says Sara must hate her, Sara denies it and hugs her, telling her they can talk to the judge and fix everything.