Summary

Overwhelmed by the pain of his passing, Mira wishes she could tell her father “how bad” she feels (87). She has no desire to escape her pain. She no longer cares “about herself” or anyone else (87). She only wants “to be loyal” to her father (87). Holding onto him means she will never lose her. In the winter, the Christmas lights comfort her. Although cheap and plastic, they feel like the lights of the ancestors, and now of her father, twinkling nearby (89). The only time Mira has ever felt present in her life is when she was “lying in bed with her dying father” (90). It is her “one true experience” (90).

In Part Three, years prior, Mira sat with her father near a lake on “an old waterlogged tree” (93). She returns to the spot, unsure what she is seeking. She takes...