Summary

This section includes the four chapters “‘False Alarm’: June 1997,” “‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished’: A Personal Testimony August 2006,’” and “Jigsaw” all told from Naomi’s perspective. “‘False Alarm’: June 1997” starts with three questions about Naomi’s parents, their marriage, and her mother’s satisfaction with her life. The chapter then opens with Darren and Naomi bickering about their mother’s plans to surprise their father at work. Darren thinks it is a bad idea, and that their mother has an agenda. They get into the Chevy station wagon; a car that had “fallen between the two adults like a ball indifferently dropped” (161). Their plan is to drop off the car for inspection (Darren pointed out it had expired) then all go together to the women’s center where Gus works and surprise him, instead of meeting him at the restaurant...