Counting by 7s

Lenore takes Willow to the Jamison Children's Center, a facility that provides emergency foster care. While she waits on the couch, Willow spots the local newspaper on the coffee table. The headline is about her parents' crash, and upon seeing a photo from the scene of the accident, she faints and cuts her head on a sharp edge of the table. In her semi-conscious state, she thinks about hemoglobin binding oxygen, and asks herself: “Now that Jimmy and Roberta Chance are gone, what binds me to this world?” (142) Lenore drives Willow to the hospital, where she gets nine stitches. Willow tells Lenore that she is going to use the bathroom, but instead she sneaks to the cafeteria where she borrows a stranger's cell phone to call Jairo for a ride.

Jairo picks her up a block away from the hospital, per her instructions. He notices her stitches and feels protective of her. He has followed Willow's medical advice and got his bad mole removed just that morning. Her intuitive advice makes him think she is “some kind of mystic” (145) and that Willow is an angel “guiding him” (147). Once he drops her off at the library, he reads the hospital wristband she leaves behind and finally learns her name.

Lenore asks Dell to be part of the search to find Willow, which makes him feel purposeful. While Lenore and the staff at Jamison file reports, Dell has an idea and drives to Mai's school. 

Willow finds comfort in the familiar space of the library and tries to find literature on losing a parent. She finds no helpful data and leaves a suggestion that there should be more work published on this topic. With nowhere to go, Willow feels empathy for the homeless people she has seen at the library and falls asleep behind a chair.

Dell pulls Mai out of class and explains that Willow is missing. He wants Mai's help finding her, so Mai demands that he sign her out of school so she can help him search.

Mai wakes Willow from her nap, and Dell proudly calls Children's Services to inform them he found Willow. Before he brings Willow back to Jamison, however, Mai demands that he take them to a burger shop. While chatting at the restaurant, Mai learns that Dell lives in a two-bedroom apartment, and she explains (without revealing that they live in a garage) that her family cannot take Willow in. She uses Dell's cell phone to call Pattie and asks her to meet the group at Jamison.

Back at Jamison, the staff members discuss Willow's situation, while Mai tries to convince Pattie of the plan: Willow will stay with them, but they will put down Dell's address as their own so that whenever the caseworker visits, they can pretend they live in Dell's apartment. Pattie is initially apprehensive but agrees to be Willow's temporary guardian. Willow agrees that while she stays with the Nguyens (under Dell's address), she will check in at Jamison once a week and continue to see Dell while she is on a leave of absence from school. Dell is proud of his contributions to the day's efforts, and “looks like someone who hasn't been thanked very often” (168). Pattie promises Willow that she will make sure they find a good place for her.

Willow attends her parents' memorial service with Dell, Pattie, and Mai. The people in attendance are mostly unfamiliar to Willow, and she tunes out most of the speeches. At the end, everyone releases balloons into the sky, and though Willow contemplates the ecological effects of this, she “cannot find [her] voice to do anything about these future calamities” (172). Later, she goes to the library, and after taking a nap in her usual spot, she sits outside on the steps. She thinks to herself: “For someone grieving, moving forward is the challenge. Because after extreme loss, you want to go back. Maybe that's why I don't calculate anything now. I can only count in the negative space” (175). In her “new world,” she does not find things meaningful or interesting. She tries her best to stay silent and out of everyone's way to be less of a burden and survives this first month as “a shadow” (177). 

Dell admits that he has deceived numerous people, and he fears the consequences: he has not been honest with his supervisor, he has not been homeschooling Willow like he told Jamison he would, and he let the Nguyens use his address as their own. Willow still comes to her required meetings, but they hardly do anything. He now regrets that his path crossed with Willow's, “because it was a lot easier to do his job and not care about anything. And now he cared about everything” (181).

Pattie has put off the foster parenting classes she agreed to take. In two months, Willow will have a hearing to determine her permanent placement. Pattie distracts herself by looking through a nail polish catalog, finding a red shade that Willow might like.