Sandy’s house

Sandy's house
First appearance	To the Top, page 1 July 7, 2010
Related characters	Sandy, Sandy’s mom

Sandy’s house is the home that Sandy shares with her mother in Rickter, the faraway city she moved to as a child. Only three parts of it have ever been drawn: Sandy’s bedroom, the bathroom next to it, and the front porch. No one but Sandy has ever been shown inside.

Description

The comic never shows the building from outside, so most of what’s known comes from Sandy’s bedroom. In To the Top it holds a double bed with a tall headboard of twisted, rope-textured posts topped with ball finials, a bedside table with a “SONY”-marked digital alarm clock, and a built-in closet with tall paneled doors. A window beside the bed has floor-length curtains and looks out on a yard with one large, leafy tree. Sandy makes her evening calls from bed, with her phone and fashion magazines beside her. During one call, she hugs a framed childhood photo of herself and Mike. The bedroom seen in December’s flashback looks rather different, with the bed tucked under a window with plain white curtains and pink bedding.

The adjoining bathroom has a fully tiled shower with twin round knobs, a mirror, a toilet, and a vanity sink where a plant cutting sits in a glass of water beside a shelf of rather fancy lotion and shampoo bottles. The front door opens onto a porch with a welcome mat.

The house is usually drawn at night, tightly framed, with the room drowning in darkness and empty space. Veronica’s commentary confirms that Oliver darkened the colors of the night scenes on purpose.

History

Sandy’s bathroom vanity, where a plant cutting sits in a glass of water. Bottles of lotion and shampoo fill a shelf beside the door.

The house debuts in To the Top, which opens on an unnamed girl’s morning routine here. An alarm blares, a shower runs, lipstick goes on and a blue bow gets tied, all while a mother’s voice through the bathroom door hurries her along. Only when she answers with a weary “You know I know, Mom” does the comic reveal that the girl is Sandy.

The chapter keeps coming back to the bedroom after dark. Lying on her bed with Mike on speakerphone, Sandy leafs through a fashion magazine that features her own face, hugs the framed photo of the two of them as kids, and admits “I really miss you, Maishul..” By the last page, bags from “Fancy Pants Inc” and “Rich Pplgoods” are strewn across her floor after a shopping trip, and Sandy’s smile fades as she tells Mike, “Yeah, wonderful. I hope it makes you happy.”

A flashback in December shows Sandy’s side of the phone calls from years earlier, when she and Mike had only just reconnected. From her bed, a handset pressed to her ear, she gasps at the sound of Lucy hitting Mike’s shin and sobs that “A real friend would NEVER hurt you.. ever!!” She then coldly declares that she doesn’t like Lucy at all. Years later, Mike credits those calls with helping him see Lucy’s treatment of him for what it was, right before he cuts her out of his life.

Trivia

• Veronica invented the name “Rickter” at around age twelve, by mashing random words together until something stuck.

See also

• Sandy
• To the Top
• December
• Mike’s house