Summary

Elvis begins to meet with a guidance counselor, Ms. Bernstein, once a week, a school policy after a student loses a parent. Ms. Bernstein tells Elvis that the grieving process takes 18 months and gives her a chart to track her progress. Elvis’s chart has two extra boxes, since her mother’s body was not found until two months after her disappearance. Elvis considers Ms. Bernstein’s statement that there are normal and abnormal ways to grieve. Elvis worries she does not feel as sad as she wants to feel, or as sad as she thinks she should feel. Elvis tacks the chart up in her bedroom and plans to cross off each month as it passes. Waiting at her next meeting with Ms. Bernstein, Elvis pockets a copy of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Kids!

When asked by her classmates what the...