Chapter 35 Summary

Norah is asleep on her hospital bed connected to an oxygen tube. Reta sits on a plastic chair drawn close to the bed and considers it heaven to be so near her daughter, even though she is alarmed by the sight of Norah's scarred red hands resting on the white hospital coverlet. Tom tells her that the injuries are a combination of second-degree burns and resulting infection.

When did Norah get burned? No one seems to know. Natalie reminds her family that Norah had been wearing garden gloves since the previous summer, even in the middle of July when the weather was hot and humid. Reta suddenly remembers that Norah had been wearing these same gloves when they found her on the corner of Bloor and Bathurst last April. She had assumed that

Norah wore them to protect her hands, but now she...