When We Collided

Chapter 7 opens with Vivi’s inner monologue. She feels impossibly lucky for stumbling across the Daniels family and is utterly in love with them all. It has been a week since she first kissed Jonah, but they have not had any time alone together. This chapter finds them and the younger kids at the beach. The sight of Jonah tying up Leah’s hair and applying sunblock on her neck makes Vivi fall in even more love with his responsible and kind nature. Vivi wears a bathing suit that covers up a tattoo she regrets getting and bangles on her wrist to hide her scar. They play in the sand with Jonah’s siblings before Vivi finally goes to write out “Vivi was here” into the sand (60). It is the second time Jonah has seen her do this, the first time being when she buried a scrap of paper with the same phrase into the Daniels’ garden.

Vivi leaves those messages in hopes of leaving a permanent mark on the world. When she explains this to Jonah, he thinks about his father. Instead of going to dinner with the rest of the family, Vivi and Jonah get icecream cones for dinner. On the way there, Vivi thinks about every little thing that she loves about the Daniels family members and resolves to shoulder and relieve some of Jonah’s weariness. They order two icecream cones and Patty, the shop owner, allows them to sit up on the roof as the sun begins to set. Jonah admits that he has been tired for months from trying to take care of his family. Vivi tells Jonah that she has been waiting for him to tell her about his parents, that she does not mind waiting for him to be comfortable with her.

With that, Jonah tells her about the death of his dad. Jonah tells Vivi that he’s worried about what will happen after Silas leaves for college; Jonah does not think he can care for the little kids on his own. Jonah admits that he hates the situation and is angry at his mother for abandoning them. Vivi tries to convince Jonah that he’s doing all that he can. Vivi says that she’s not afraid of his sadness, that she’s “not scared of the dark places” (67). The end of the chapter finds Jonah meeting Vivi at her house, wanting to take a walk on the beach in the middle of the night. Carrie, Vivi’s mother, meets Jonah and is charmed by him.

Vivi decides to go swimming and Jonah gives in, despite being worried about the riptide. When they finally go into deeper waters, Jonah kisses her for the second time.

Jonah goes running in the early mornings. It has been two weeks since he first met Vivi and even though he has begun to feel better, he decides that he needs the morning to contemplate the worries he spoke to Vivi about the night before. He worries about Silas leaving for college and about dying of a heart attack like his father. Jonah does what he can to mitigate this fear by making oatmeal for his family, “to do something” (75) when so little is in his hands. Vivi is a welcome distraction for Jonah. She puts on plays with Isaac and Bekah and is kind to Leah. Jonah compares Vivi to his ex-girlfriend, Sarah. Sarah was prepared and organized, and ultimately, wanted to fix Jonah in his grief. It is why Jonah broke up with her and why Jonah refuses to push his mother out of her sadness.

Although Felix tried to speak to Jonah about the difference between grief and depression—Felix’s own son has dealt with the latter—Jonah has been ignoring him in fear of making his mom feel worse. Jonah heads to the restaurant from his run to pick up his tips from the week before and begins thinking about money. Their mom is an accountant and used to do the restaurant’s books, but all that is now up to Jonah, Silas, and Naomi. When Jonah arrives at the restaurant, he sees Ellie, Felix’s daughter. Ellie and Jonah have known each other their whole life and she says she’s excited to meet Vivi at the annual Verona Cove bonfire.

Jonah lies to Ellie and tells her that his mom will be out of town that night, trying to explain away why Silas will not be attending. After Ellie leaves, Jonah sees unpaid bills, past due, in the office and begins to worry. When he emerges from the office, Jonah sees Vivi, who is upset with him for being alone with Ellie. Vivi is extremely jealous, but Jonah calms her. Jonah eventually tells Vivi about the bills and how he would like to change some things in the restaurant to make it more profitable. Vivi encourages him to do so and tells him that she would like the outdoor space of the restaurant to be fixed up for her birthday. Jonah agrees and tells Felix his plan. The chapter ends with Felix telling Jonah how much he looks like Tony.

Vivi has a nightmare. In the dream, she’s back in Seattle with her best friends Ruby and Amala. It is Ruby’s birthday and Vivi sleeps with Amala’s ex-boyfriend. When Amala finds out, she is inconsolable and tells Vivi to get out of her life. When she wakes, Vivi despises the white of her ceiling and is already painting it. She called Richard and got his permission to paint the ceiling “Starry Night blue” and “Sterling” (84). Carrie is suspicious that Vivi is not taking her medicine, but she too has similar fits of artist’s insomnia and creativity, so she leaves for the farmer’s market.

After Carrie leaves, Vivi goes to the sea and throws her medication into the ocean. She reveals that the pill is lithium but denies the severity of her illness:

But I’m better now. I’m best, even! Besides, I still take my other pill because that one keeps the shadow creatures at bay. Last year, they curled their inky arms around me until my Technicolor world became crackling gray static. Until I felt nothing but blankness (86).

Vivi gets a text from Jonah and she is delighted; she claims that he is “one of several elixirs” (86) that she uses to feel better. She implies that she performed oral sex on Jonah the week before in the outdoor shower. She receives a call from Jonah and rushes over to the grocery store, where his mother had a panic attack while trying to get groceries.

Mrs. Daniels finally meets Vivi, and he is embarrassed about her condition. Vivi reveals her own scar to Mrs. Daniels and they talk about antidepressants and how it helps. Jonah leads his mother to car and after, confesses to Vivi that he thinks he should tell Felix about her condition. Vivi becomes enraged and begins snapping her fingers, telling him that he should talk to her, instead of assuming that his mother has no agency. Vivi “resent[s] people who believe that depression is the same as weakness, that “sad” people must be coddled like helpless toddlers” (90). Vivi is so angry that she blows off work and goes shopping in San Jose. 

Jonah receives a call from Whitney, the owner of the pottery shop, asking after Vivi. Vivi has not turned up for work and she is worried. After, Whitney calls back to tell Jonah that Vivi has gone on a day trip and forgotten that she had to work. Jonah knows this is a lie and that he had infuriated Vivi so much she left. Jonah is just as angry at Felix, upset that the older man stopped visiting the Daniels residence and making sure that Mrs. Daniels is coping with the loss of her husband. Jonah invited Felix to visit two months after the death of his father, but Felix admitted that Mrs. Daniels asked him not to visit anymore. Jonah reminisces about how Naomi thought therapy would help and how Silas thought they needed to leave their mother alone; Jonah was caught somewhere in the middle.

As Jonah and Leah draw with chalk in the driveway, Vivi pulls up in a blue Vespa. Jonah tries to apologize for upsetting Vivi, but she stops him. Vivi invites Jonah over to make dinner for her while her mother is in San Francisco for a gallery opening.