Summary

When Lynn was 15, she intentionally began eating haphazardly. She wanted to prove her "independence" (401). To show her what might happen if she did not take better care of herself, her parents put her in "a Duryea-Gode disease ward" (401).

She does not want to describe what the ward was like. When she got home, she started cutting herself. She almost killed herself one night. Her father found her. Their relationship was never the same afterwards.

Three years later, when Lynn was ready to graduate high school, her father's illness overtook him. Most people who have DGD can feel it coming on, or their families notice. Most people whose illness is noticed earlier on are "locked up for a week's observation" (401). For her father, it "was sudden" (401). For Lynn's family, the results were worse than she had ever heard before.

While Lynn was "rehearsing graduation...