Summary

The Waldo section of the December 21, 2010 chapter begins with Waldo plotting to run away from home (47). He leaves the house with his iPad. He walks down toward “the parkway that leads, eventually, to New York City” (49). Eventually, he winds up in the parking lot of a nearby mall (50). He takes refuge in a playhouse in a swing set outside one of the stores, regretting having come this far and wondering if he can last there until morning (52).

Next, the perspective shifts to Mimi. She walks along the road, under the impression that Sarah and Theo are “on the shore of an unfamiliar island by themselves” as children and that she needs to find them (53). As she walks along, she continually loses her grasp on reality, remembering past events but unable to put them in chronology (54). She keeps returning to the...