Summary

In the sixth vignette “Seeing is Knowing,” the narrator begins by explaining how her pilgrimages focus on “other pilgrims" (19). But in this vignette, “in this case, the pilgrim is in pieces, broken down” (19). She is visiting a showcase in a museum. It begins with collection of bones with something deformed or broken about them. Malformed spines, arthritic hands, and a skull with a bullet hole through it are all part of the display. Then, she describes the fetuses and the organs. She describes them as ugly, while only the blood is given the beauty of its red color because it serves as a warning when that the skin has been breached.

In the seventh vignette, “Seven Years of Trips,” the narrator is listening to a young man who, like his parents, goes on two-week vacations every year with an unspecified “we (22).” He tells...