Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen Summary

In Chapter Seventeen, Nomi describes a pain that she gets in her face on a nightly basis. Although she is hurting, she goes to visit Lydia in the hospital. Lydia and Nomi talk for a while. Nomi describes Lydia's parents as being nice people who don't believe in doctors or medicine. They believe prayer and tomato juice will heal their daughter. Nomi convinces Lydia to let her wash her hair.

When Nomi returns home, her father asks her to go with him to buy a suit. As she waits for her father to be fitted, Nomi looks at the directions on her pack of pills. She learns the pills will trick her body into believing that it is pregnant. On the way home, Ray apologizes to Nomi for not being much of a father. At home, Nomi...