Summary

After seeing their father in Chapter 37, Dell and Berner found their mother in a cell with another woman and a suicide sign attached to the bars. Their mother claimed she felt as if a weight had been lifted, but their encounter remained awkward. Berner started crying and demanded to know if she robbed a bank, a question she never answered. She told Dell she was going to write something—a “tragic-comedy” (199) she calls it—and then they left her as her lawyer approaches. In retrospect, Dell says that this was the last time he saw both his parents.

In Chapter 38, the last chapter of Part 1, Dell and Berner walked home and found just how insignificant they were. No police officers, juvenile authorities or social workers had come to check on their welfare, and they stopped on a bridge over the Missouri River...