46 pages • 1 hour read
Crossroads
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Themes
Renewal Through Second Chances
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.
When Indya returns to the ranch, she meets resistance, including from West, who does not know Indya’s intentions and thinks that she is there to disrupt his life. Her presence leads West to confront not only his own failures but also the painful truth that the ranch has deteriorated into near bankruptcy. West cannot forgive himself for the mistakes that led to its downfall, weighed down by regret as he reflects, “I wished I had done things differently” (55). The ranch’s demise wasn’t the result of just one failure but a series of unfortunate choices: his parents’ divorce, Courtney’s scam, the ill-fated land purchase, and Curtis’s stubborn refusal to change. All these factors created a slow collapse that West could not prevent, but he feels responsible for them, nevertheless. For West, the combination of guilt and grief is immobilizing: He sinks into despair, unwilling to believe that the ranch has a future. Indya, meanwhile, does what he never could—she gives the ranch a second chance. Through her determination, stubbornness, and loyalty to her father, Indya is able to transform the ranch into the place it always deserved to be.
West and Indya’s relationship mirrors the state of the ranch. At first, it is worn down by time, regret, and missed opportunities yet still capable of revival. Reminding herself not to get her hopes up, Indya says, “West and I were nothing but collisions on crossroads” (79). Over the years, they have occasionally met by chance before their paths diverged again, and these brief meetings have often left them emotionally damaged, as cars are damaged in a collision. Indya can’t help but think about how she will be gone in a year, reinforcing the cycle of their near misses. However, for the first time, they break that pattern by truly confronting the past together. West finally shares his side of the story, giving Indya insight into the struggles that shaped him, and in return, she opens up about her own experiences. For the first time, they really see each other as more than just a romantic affair from their youth. West, who has spent so much of his life letting things slip through his fingers, refuses to let history repeat itself this time. He calls it “[a] week of [them] starting over” (232), making it clear that this time, he won’t let her go. Their love story, much like the ranch’s story, is one of renewal—proof that second chances don’t erase past mistakes but instead offer the opportunity to rebuild something stronger and more lasting.
Personal Growth Through Confrontation With the Past
Indya’s return to the ranch is a return to the past, to grief, and to the love she thought she had left behind. The once-magical place of her childhood now appears unkempt, aside from the cattle and their fencing, making her question whether her excitement as a child had clouded reality or if the ranch had always been this bleak. Her arrival stirs memories of past trips, particularly those that shaped her relationship with West. Returning to these places forces Indya to confront both the beauty and the pain of what she left behind.
The characters’ confrontation with the past is most evident in the novel’s first kiss scene, which blends past and present to emphasize the lasting bond between the two protagonists. As they finally give in to their long-standing tension, the moment is described as inevitable: “We were like kindling. All we needed was an ember, and we went up in flames” (92). The passion between West and Indya began decades before and is emphasized further by the return to the scene in which they kissed for the first time as teenagers. Indya fell in love with West and cried when she had to leave the ranch after spending every day with him, thinking of him as “her West.” Now, both Indya and West begin to open up about their pasts, with the latter sharing painful memories of his parents’ divorce and his struggles with Curtis. By revisiting their past together, the couple must decide whether to remain stuck in the past or embrace the possibility of a future together.
West’s journey of personal growth is deeply tied to his confrontation with the past, particularly his unresolved emotions about the ranch and his relationships. For years, he has viewed the ranch as both a burden and a responsibility, struggling to maintain it while refusing to acknowledge its deterioration. His resistance to Indya’s changes is not just about the physical transformation of the ranch but also about his own struggles with change as a result of his parents’ divorce. When Indya returns, she inspires West to see what he has been avoiding. Their reconnection is not just about sex and romance but about West finally acknowledging that holding onto the past has only caused his life to stagnate. By accepting that change is inevitable—both in the ranch and in his personal life—West is able to let go of the resentment that has weighed him down and begin to move forward.
Indya, too, is forced to confront the past in returning to the ranch. The ranch was her father’s favorite place, and for her, it is suffused with memories of his long illness and eventual death. Flashbacks to the family’s several trips to the ranch over several years provide a sped-up view of her father’s gradual decline. This decline coincided with Indya’s developing romance with West, whom she met in childhood and who eventually became her first lover. The ranch, then, was a formative location for her—the site of her first experiences with romantic love and with grief. To move forward in her life, she must achieve closure by confronting this fraught past, which she does by returning to the ranch, rescuing it from its downward spiral, and starting a new life with West.
The Necessity of Accepting Change
At the start of the novel, both Indya and West are clinging to the past: West tries to keep the ranch exactly as it was in his childhood, refusing to recognize that its stasis is a path to financial ruin, while Indya continues to call her father’s voicemail every day, clinging to the illusion that he is still with her. As their relationship progresses, each helps the other accept the difficult changes that are necessary for their future.
When Indya arrives, she begins making significant changes to the ranch, including changing its name, which sparks tension among the staff and even within West himself. West initially resists change, clinging to the ranch as it was under his father’s ownership. The ranch workers, along with Jax and Curtis, struggle to accept Indya’s influence, treating her as an outsider. However, as time passes, West begins to let go of his resentment, realizing that change isn’t as terrible as he once believed. He reflects on his growth, admitting, “A month ago, I would have hated it. A month ago, I would have glared at those flowers the way Dad glared at the sign. A month ago, I had still been drowning in resentment and grief. Acceptance wasn’t so bad” (155). Unlike West and Curtis, Indya has the courage to make difficult decisions, pushing the ranch forward in a way they never could. Ultimately, her changes reflect not just a new vision for the ranch but also her acceptance of her father’s death.
While Indya is a catalyst for change regarding the ranch, she resists the most significant change in her personal life: the death of her father. She calls his voicemail daily just to hear his voice, and she visits the ranch “for him” rather than for herself. Throughout the story, she grapples with the weight of his absence, often thinking that he should have been the one standing in her place. Indya’s life was shaped by her father’s cancer since she was eight, forcing her to be brave and put his needs first. She recalls, “We wore faces for my father. She hid the sadness, and I hid the worry” (206). Her choices, like taking over the ranch and selling her father’s company, are all driven by the lingering presence of grief. The loss of his voicemail at the novel’s end symbolizes a turning point, forcing Indya to finally let go. In the past, she struggled to cry after scattering her father’s ashes in his favorite meadow; now, when she revisits the same meadow, she lets herself sob. Her journey is not just about accepting change in the ranch but about finally allowing herself to grieve, freeing herself from the weight of the past. With West, Indya releases her grief and untethers herself from her father’s business. Indya cries into the night as West holds her, and then she is finally able to move on without the weight of the loss on her shoulders.
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