Ricken talks about Mark and Gemma in his book. Here’s everything he says.

In Ricken's book The You You Are, he mentions Mark and Gemma several times, using the codenames "Flip" (Mark) and "Nan" (Gemma). Below is every reference to them. How do you thing it affects Mark's innie, since he read the book?

Page 13:

  • They are a couple and close family to the narrator, Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale. They accompany Ricken and his wife, Devon, on a hike.
  • They requested that their real names not be used in the book, so they are given the pseudonyms "Flip" and "Nan."

Page 14:

  • Flip tires easily during the hike.
  • Nan and Ricken read passages from Doctor Zhivago while Flip and Devon nap.
  • Flip and Nan are inexplicably afraid when Ricken approaches what he thinks is a wig in a tree (which turns out to be a beehive).

Page 16:

  • Flip makes a joke about Ricken's bee-related epiphany by pantomiming a stinging attack.
  • Nan is the only one who listens to Ricken's musings about bees and society, even adding her own insights.

Page 17:

  • Nan died two years before this portion of the book was written.
  • Her death occurred when she slipped on ice on a dark road.
  • Ricken wrote a poem in her honor for her funeral, included in Chapter 5:

Like a bee with a broken
antenna
I am now in a sad man's
dilemma
For draining my soul
Is a dark, weeping hole
In the shape of my dear, sweet
friend Nan

(Note that "Nan" does not fit the rhyme scheme, but "Gemma" does.)

Page 31:

  • Ricken visits Flip in his basement six months after Nan's death, looking for a cassette tape of Tuvan throat singing that he made for her.
  • Flip is drinking and reveals a previously unseen viciousness.

Page 32:

  • It is revealed that Flip and Nan listened to the throat singing tape to mock Ricken and that Nan laughed at it.
  • Flip insults Ricken, saying, “Everyone laughs at you the second you walk out of the fucking room.”

Page 33:

  • Ricken reflects that Nan's laughter might have been playful rather than cruel.
  • He admits that knowing she laughed at his gift still bothers him.

Page 36:

  • Ricken has mended fences with Flip in the year since their fight.
  • They apologized to each other.
  • Ricken never sued Flip over the lost tape.
  • He still wishes he knew how to help Flip with his grief.