Summary

Beginning in Part 2, Chapter 1, Meredith is the narrator. It is six years later and Meredith, who now lives in New York with her much older boyfriend, comes back to her parents' house and Washington, D.C, which she hates because it is a stagnant place that is even worse with the new presidency. There are handfuls of protesters "against the monster and his minions" (147), more guns, and more barricades. Meredith is back by herself because she made her boyfriend, who wanted to meet her parents and see where she grew up, stay home because she wants to avoid more surprises for her parents.

Meredith's family is moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, because her father has a new job there as a professor and institute director. Meredith has come back at the last minute despite her mother's wishes for her to come...