Suzy’s Mom Character Analysis

“Not everything makes sense, Zu. Sometimes things just happen.”

He looked at me closely. “Suzy, middle school sucks,” he said. “You know that, right?”

I looked down at the floor.

“No, really, Suzy. When I was in seventh grade, all I wanted was to get the heck out of there. And I hadn’t even lost my best fr—” He stopped quickly and shook his head. “I’m just saying. It won’t always be this way.”

HYPOTHESIS: That the Worst Thing was caused by a sting from an Irukandji jellyfish.

“You see, professionals are trained to recognize patterns,” she continued. “Both good patterns and the patterns that a person might want to change. Professionals are trained to help people figure out things they struggle to understand on their own.”

Ming palace was the place where my not-talking began. It was just a few days after seventh grade started, which was just a few days after Franny’s funeral. When I arrived at the restaurant that night, Dad was outside, cradling a phone between his neck and his shoulder. “Uh-huh,” he said. He held up one finger as if to say, I’ll be just a moment.

Which means you can go anywhere. You just need a good plan, a destination, money to get you there, and enough deep breaths that you don’t lose your nerve.

You can just step onto the plane and disappear.

But I stopped squinting. I placed my mom’s phone in my shirt pocket, next to the photo of Aaron. I took a deep breath.

“Yeah,” I said to Sarah. “Let’s go.”