Chapter Nine Summary

Alex meets Michaela at the hospital. A freelance makeup artist touches up his bruised face. Alex is having to act normal, since the hospital brought back memories of being a patient in a pediatric ward. Alex had been born with a hole in his heart, which kept him from being a normal child; as a boy, he imagined all of his loving having spilled out, and he began to become other people in his mind. By the time he was well at age eight, he had a full range of masks to wear, and was not sure what was underneath, due to his "mother's indifference and his father's taunting". The sight of the ill children is difficult for him. He tried to kiss a little girl on the cheek, but she turned and kissed him on the mouth, to the flash...