Chapter 7 Summary

Stephanie Bolling no longer called Chicago home. She had left six years before after graduating from college when she was offered a job with a media company in Los Angeles. She lives in Santa Monica, five minutes from her office and ten minutes from the beach. She is back on the south side of Chicago to see her grandfather, Hal Bolling, who is dying of lung cancer. She hates the old neighborhood with its gangs and violence.

Stephanie drives right from O'Hare to the nursing home where her grandfather lives. They had become close after he realized she existed. His son, who lived in Philadelphia with his father, had fathered her on a visit to Chicago when her mother was just sixteen. When Hal realized he had a granddaughter he was thrilled and paid for everything from then on - clothing, education and...