Chapter 8, San Diego, California Summary

Whenever Jenny is alone in the house with Grandma, as she is now, she is alert to her presence each moment until someone else comes home. Grandma is old and fragile, and Jenny is afraid that something might happen, that Grandma might need help she cannot give or that she might die. Before Grandma moved in with them last year, she had her own place, a busy life and many friends. Her life has shrunk down to the size of the bed, and she sleeps most of the day. Jenny is reading Anne Frank's letters when she hears Grandma through the intercom, calling her long-dead sister, but she has only said the name absent-mindedly and calls again for her daughter, Jenny's mother. Jenny goes to her. Grandma asks for Jenny's mother and then for Jenny's father, who...