Unwind

Risa is angry about what she considers to be Connor’s lapse in judgment. She believes the baby makes their situation worse. Connor tells her he picked the baby up because the authorities are looking for three people without a baby. However, Risa knows that “The reason Connor gave was a lie. Something else drove him to run to that porch. But whatever the real reason was, Connor’s keeping it to himself” (65). Another girl with a baby talks to them. They tell her Connor is the baby’s dad and Risa is the baby’s mother. They also tell her that Lev is Risa’s brother. He sits a couple of seats away with another boy.

Lev wanted to run as soon as they reached civilization, but he didn’t. He realizes there will be a better time to betray them. “Pretending to be one of them—pretending to be like them had taken every ounce of Lev’s will. The only thing that kept him going was the knowledge that very soon everything would be as it should be” (68). The fact that their pictures are not in the newspaper worries Lev. He also worries that his companions are unbalanced, and because of their deficiencies, “They need to be unwound” (68). While he sits with another boy on the school bus, he thinks about his options. He takes the boy’s notebook and writes, “Help! I’m being held hostage” (69). The boy is annoyed at Lev and takes the notebook away, then “The bus comes to a stop, and Lev feels his hope trampled beneath thirty pairs of scuffed shoes” (70).

Connor suggests they hide in the boy’s bathroom for the entire school day. Risa agrees, but insists they use the girl’s bathroom:

Connor coaches them on the finer points of bathroom stealth. How to tell the difference between kids’ footsteps and adults’. When to life your feed up so no one can see you, and when to just announce that the stall is occupied (71).

He also informs them that the bathroom door squeaks every time someone enters.

In the bathroom, Risa announces the baby is a girl. Connor decides to tell her why he stopped for the baby. He explains that his family was storked when he was a kid. His family illegally left the baby on a neighbor’s porch instead. Two weeks later, the same baby was left on their doorstep. At that point, the baby was sick. The whole ordeal troubled Connor. “I remember thinking, if a baby was going to be so unloved, why would God want it brought into the world?” (74). The baby died, and the entire neighborhood attended the funeral. “And that’s when I realized that the people who were crying—they were the ones who had passed that baby around. They were the ones, just like my own parents, who had a hand in killing it” (75).

The bell rings, and there is a commotion in the hallway. The bathroom door squeaks, and Connor hears snippets of conversation. Risa asks if they should change bathroom stalls, and Connor says yes. However, they do not get a reply from Lev.