Heartbeat

In “Questions,” Annie elaborates on Max’s desire to open a camp for “boys like him” (42). Max wants to leave their town and feels restless there, but Annie doesn’t understand his mentality. To her, the town is complex and ever-changing. Max describes boys like him as having nothing. In class, Annie’s teacher Mr. Welling asks her class to write about what they fear and what they love. While her peers write about fearing math class and loving ice cream, Annie writes about her fear of death, as well as her love of laughing, running, and drawing. While Annie notices the disparity between her peers’ interpretation of the assignment and her own, she is “feeling stubborn” (46) and does not restart the assignment.

At home, Annie begins looking at books about fetal development with her father, who calls the child a “pumpkin alien baby” (47). She marvels at how the baby is growing fingers and toes and teeth, and how it knows how to do so. She thinks of her grandfather, whose dentures sit in a glass by his bed. Annie dreams of an alien pumpkin with teeth. In “Fried Chicken,” Annie’s grandfather panics because he cannot remember his recipe for fried chicken, though he used to make it every week. Annie’s mother comes into the room and expresses shock at her father being unable to remember the recipe. Annie wonders if the baby inside her mother can already think, and what she herself will one day forget.

In “Saving,” Annie encounters her elderly neighbor, Ms. Cobber, while on one of her runs. Ms. Cobber pays Annie to do light chores for her, and as Annie thinks about what she would like to save up her money for, Max joins her on her run. They rest on a bench, and she asks Max if he is saving up for anything. He immediately replies that he wants to buy running shoes, because he will need them to run track meets in the spring. He tells Annie, “for the nine millionth time” (59), that she should join the girls’ team, but she replies angrily that she has no interest in running for a team. He then asks her what she is saving up for, and she says she would like to buy a set of charcoal and colored pencils.