Elsewhere

Liz continues to go to the OD, but she now only watches her family. On the day she would have turned 16, she listens as her parents wonder aloud whether the driver that hit her will ever be caught. Liz—who hadn’t previously known the driver fled the scene—screams that the car was a taxicab with a four-leaf-clover air freshener. Her family can't hear her, but Liz becomes obsessed with discovering the driver’s identity.

After about a week of searching, she locates the cab: its driver is a man named Amadou Bonamy, who has a young family, takes night classes at Boston University, and (to her frustration) generally seems like a good person and a careful driver: “She realizes she doesn’t want to know this much about Amadou Bonamy. Amadou Bonamy is a murderer. He is my murderer, she thinks. He needs to pay” (112). As she leaves the OD, she asks Esther about contacting the living, but Esther warns her that it’s a bad idea.

Trying to think of someone who might be able to help her, Liz settles on Curtis Jest. Since she doesn’t know what’s become of him since their arrival, she calls Thandi, who might have heard something through her work at a television station. Thandi is annoyed that Liz hasn’t been returning her calls, but she tells her that Curtis has become a fisherman.

Liz finds Curtis down at the docks. He greets her warmly, but he grows quieter when Liz explains why she’s come. Nevertheless, he tells her that he’s heard of two ways to contact the living. One is to try to find a ship back to Earth, but this is time-consuming and means becoming a ghost. The other is to dive to a place in the ocean known as “the Well,” where there’s a two-way window to Earth. Still worried, Curtis urges Lizzie to reconsider her plans, telling her that “there’s always a choice” (117). Liz denies that this is true, and Curtis reluctantly lets her leave.

Through a mixture of eavesdropping and careful conversation, Liz learns where the Well is. With money she borrowed to buy clothes, Liz gets a diving tank and wetsuit and heads to the beach. She claims to be going to a party at Thandi’s house, but Betty is suspicious finds the box for the tank in Liz’s room.

Liz checks in on Amadou one final time and finds him racing to his son’s school; the boy is sick, and Amadou tenderly picks him up and takes him home. Frustrated, Liz sits on the beach and thinks about what she’s just seen.

This is where Betty finds her; she isn’t angry, but she wishes Liz would open up to her. In response, Liz describes her confusion about Amadou, listening as Betty explains that “People […] aren’t usually all good or all bad. […] [M]ost of us, well, we fall in the middle somewhere” (123). Liz begins crying; she’s just remembered that she didn’t look before crossing the street, preoccupied by thoughts of the watch she’d forgotten to bring to the mall for repairs. She says she wants to forgive Amadou, but she is afraid to let go of the anger that gives her a sense of purpose.

On the walk home, Liz finds herself paying more attention to the people and scenes around her. Liz promises Betty that she’ll stop going to the OD; instead, she’ll find an avocation and repay the money she owes. She asks Betty why she’s been so patient with her, and Betty says that she’s been “lonely for a very long time” (126)—particularly since her falling-out with Liz’s mother. The next morning, Liz calls Aldous to ask about working as a counselor at the Division of Domestic Animals.  

Betty gushes excitedly as she drops Liz of for her first day at work. Liz, however, is nervous that she’ll be fired if she can’t learn Canine.

Once inside, Liz’s supervisor (Josey) greets her and gives her a pair of overalls to put on. Liz goes to change in the bathroom, where she finds a dog drinking water from the toilet. When Liz says she’ll get a bowl of water for her, the dog speaks, asking what the toilet is for if not for drinking from; Liz explains, and the dog, who introduces herself as Sadie, is horrified. The two continue chatting, and Sadie asks whether Liz would like to adopt her. Liz promises to talk to Betty about it.

Josey interrupts the conversation, informing Liz that Sadie is her first advisee, and noting that she didn’t know Liz spoke Canine. Liz says that she doesn’t, but Josie points out that she was just talking to Sadie, noting that she must be a “natural” (132). In addition to Sadie, Liz also counsels a chihuahua named Paco on her first day at work.

Sadie trails after Liz when she goes to get in Betty’s car; remarking that it “[s]eems like Sadie’s already made up her mind,” Betty welcomes her into the family (134).