Summary

Story 9 is titled "A Walk-Through Human Heart." Thea is shopping in a vintage store for a gift for Thea’s expectant daughter Georgia. Thea remembers Georgia telling Thea that she saw Florence in a muumuu and that “she’s old now. She got old” (160). Thea has not seen Florence in years because Florence was “her long-lost friend, lost on purpose” (160). Thea thinks about how Florence cannot be a grandmother because Florence’s child, Orly, died of an overdose. Thea asks about dolls at the vintage store and is referred to another store.

Thea heads for the next store and remembers talking with Georgia about a doll Georgia wanted as a child. When Thea explains that she would have gotten the doll for Georgia if Georgia had persisted about it, Georgia “gasped, betrayed” (164). Now Thea is looking for the...