Summary

In Chapter 26, the narrative briefly shifts to the story of a young girl with bone cancer. The girls explains that she is going to marry Jesus, and that she wished Jesus would talk to her mother. The girl hears footsteps outside of her hospital room. Her doctors and mother enter. The girl tells her mother to not feel guilty and not do die. Her mother breaks down and begins to pray.

Chapter 27 shifts back to Ted's narrative. Ted is in the stadium locker room thinking about how he and his father share writing tics. He wonders if they are genetic. He then thinks about how writing slows life down which allows people to see things differently. He thinks of Mariana. As he is thinking, a coach spots him in the locker room and gives him a strange look.

Ted speaks to his father...