Serena Wolcott

Serena Wolcott is a character from *Down Among the Sticks and Bones.*

## Personality

Serena enjoys gardening and organizing nonprofits, and making sure everything in her house is spotless and tidy. She is usually not open about her desires, should she have any at all. Jack describes Serena and Chester as overbearing, saying that they always wanted to put things in boxes, and were perfectionists.

## History

### Every Heart a Doorway

Serena and her husband Chester are both briefly mentioned when Jack introduces herself and her sister to Nancy, saying that her parents shouldn't have been allowed to name their own children.

She is mentioned again when Jack is explaining her backstory, informing Nancy that her parents had expected fraternal twins and hated them being identical twins. They had decided that Jill was the "smart one" and Jack was the "pretty one", and did everything in their power to drive their interests in their directions, and the children had been trapped in those roles until they had found their way to The Moors. When they returned five years later, they'd gone downstairs to find their parents having dinner with their four-year-old son, who'd been told that the twins were dead, as Serena and Chester didn't want the mess of admitting they were still missing. Within a month of their coming home, the parents sent their daughters to Eleanor's Home, as they didn't want their stories of different worlds affecting their son.

### Down Among the Sticks and Bones

The book begins with Serena and Chester already married, and none of their friends expect them to have children, as they both like order and routine. However, Serena becomes jealous of the women on her Boards who would bring in their daughters, and be complimented on how elegant they were. She and Chester decide to have a baby, and she become pregnant very quickly. Doctor Tozer recommends waiting twelve weeks to announce the pregnancy, should something go wrong, which is advice Serena and Chester ignore. At their first ultrasound, Serena is delighted to discover that she is having a girl, only to also find out that she's having twins. She and Chester expect it to be a boy, smug about how efficient it would be to have a nuclear family on the first try. However, when Serena gives birth, they have two girls, which causes her to faint. When she awakes, she names one twin Jacqueline after her mother, and Chester names one Jillian after his head partner's wife.

When the twins refuse to stop crying, Chester calls his mother Louise to take care of them. When she arrives, Serena is upset that her hair is uncombed and there were stains on her blouse, so she dumps the twins on Louise and leaves. She tells the people on her boards that Louise is Chester's invalid mother, who is allowed to play babysitter to feel useful. Her and Chester eventually notice that Jillian is the braver twin, and Jacqueline is the quieter one, so Chester gets to have Jillian as his athletic daughter, and Serena gets to make up Jacqueline as her perfect feminine daughter. At the twins' fifth birthday, she becomes jealous of how much Jacqueline likes Louise, and she and Chester make her leave.

The two parents are overbearing towards the children, stopping at nothing short of perfection, and forcing them into the boxes of "pretty one" and "smart one." At one point, the parents tried to switch the girls' names, as Jacqueline had the more masculine name but was perceived as more feminine, and vice versa, but Chester decided it was too much trouble. During the Summer, Serena and Chester would hire somebody to watch the girls, as they were too busy to watch them themselves. The girls' resentment of their places in life opens up a door to the Moors. When Jack is told that she may have to wait a long while to return, she is upset, saying that Serena will be angry with her for going outside.

After the twins disappear, Serena and Chester have a son, who is told that his sisters are dead. However, five years after they vanish, they reappear, Jillian covered in blood. Serena sees them first and screams, jumping to her feet, before her husband recognizes them.

## Trivia

* "Serena" is an English/Italian/Late Roman name meaning "clear, tranquil, serene."

## References

1. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 11: Serena enjoyed gardening and sitting on the board of various tidy, elegant nonprofits, and paying other people to maintain her home in a spotless state.
2. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 13: He wasn't used to her being quite so open with her desires or, indeed, having desires at all. It was dismaying... and a trifle exciting, if he were being honest.
3. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 79: "Our parents were... let's go with 'overbearing.' The sort who always wanted to put things in boxes. I think they hated us being identical twins more than we did."