Part 2, Chapters 12 and 13 Summary

Chapter 12 - Karen continues her involvement with the homeless people of New York, with narration commenting that she repeatedly hears the situation being described as just like Beirut (the capital of Lebanon). She makes friends with unpredictable, street-smart, fourteen-year-old drug dealer Omar, who helps her sell some of the re-sellable goods (pop bottles, recyclables) and who one day accompanies her to an art gallery. There, her curiosity about the texture of a food-encrusted spoon leads her first to touch it, then to accidentally pull it off the burlap canvas to which it's attached. Horrified by what she's done, fascinated by the meaning of both the spoon and the accident, she takes it to Brita's loft (where she still spends her nights) and keeps it in a safe, almost sacred place. Also at the loft, she works her way through...