Chapters Three and Four Summary

In Chapter Three, Meredith slips into the house just as her mother learns on the phone that Tony's will not deliver to them. Meredith tells them she had a pizza delivered the day before and wonders aloud why they would stop delivering now. Meredith mechanically takes her vitamins from the cabinet. She takes four pills, then four sips of juice. Four is a strong number, a safe number for her. This number has seemed safe to her ever since the first night in the hospital.

Her father decides to cook, an action that brings to Meredith's mind a memory from their old house. Meredith is upset because she has not gotten a hit in softball and believes that because of this her father will not like her the way he does the boys. Her mother's voice breaks...