Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary

The Kelly family's responsibility for Baby Wilson's hospital bills has placed them in dire straits. They lost their house and have to pay rent to stay. All able members are forced to work to contribute to the family's keep. They maintain their boarders, but things are tighter than before.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Mick relegates all this frugality to her outside room. Hardship has no place in her inside room, where she spends the nights during this very cold winter. She stays warm with thoughts of symphonies, of how glamorous it will be when she can conduct an orchestra, and of taking Mr. Singer out for a fried chicken dinner. Of course, Mr. Singer is there. She is obsessed with him, possibly because he exists in both her inside and her outside rooms.

The only person her own age that Mick is...