Section 2: Part 2 Summary

"The Melody Changes" Chick describes his mother's favorite record album, how the promise of fun in both the music and lyrics of the song seemed to bring her to life and how, after his father left, the record was never played again.

"The Encounter inside The House" Chick describes how he and his sister got caught by their mother carving their names into an antique table, how they eventually came to laugh about it, and how he sat looking at the carving as his mother treated his scrapes and cuts, gained in the fall from the water tower. He asks himself how he managed to accept what seemed impossible, and then answers himself (see "Quotes," p. 49). The narrative then adds another entry from the Times My Mother Stood Up list, telling how his mother angrily stood up to a librarian who...