Mosquitoland

They arrive at Sunrise Mountain Rehabilitation Center, and Mim realizes that her mom isn’t physically sick; she’s been hospitalized for depression. Before Mim goes inside, Walt gives her a stick-figure drawing of her, Beck, and himself. This gesture makes her cry. Beck pulls her aside and asks why she didn’t tell him about Kathy being pregnant. He squeezes her hand for encouragement, and she knows that Beck and Walt “aren’t coming inside, because this isn’t for them. This is my wooden box” (311). 

Once inside, Mim vomits in the bathroom. She and Kathy walk down the hallway to Eve’s room.

Mim tells Isabel that she’s writing to tell her the truth. One of these truths is that their Aunt Isabel, their dad’s sister, committed suicide in their basement, and six-year-old Mim was the one who found her. She thinks that he dad feels guilty for Isabel’s death as well as for young Mim finding her. 

Mim walks into her mom’s room. Eve is sitting in a chair, staring out the window, and listening to Elvis on repeat. Mim immediately knows her mom is in a bad place mentally and emotionally. Eve tells her that she shouldn’t be here, but Kathy interjects to say that Mim has trekked far to be here. Mim realizes that she’s been wrong about Kathy.

Eve says, “I was lovely once, but he never loved me once” (326), and Mim starts crying. Eve apologizes to her, and they cry together. Mim pulls out her mom’s favorite lipstick from her pocket and gently rubs it on her mom’s lips. Before leaving, she returns her mom’s lipstick. 

Beck and Walt are gone when Mim comes outside. At first, she is devastated, but then she sees a baseball program from the game they attended together taped to the building. Inside is a note written from Walt saying that he can’t wait to see her at the game. There is another note from Beck saying that he didn’t know how to say goodbye. Instead, he wants her to meet him at the opening game for the Reds vs. the Cubs in the spring at their special “rendezvouski.” In the meantime, he’s taking Walt to Chicago to find his family.

Kathy and Mim start the long drive home. Mim pulls her bottle of Abilitol out of her purse and, noticing the back label is peeling back, pulls it off to reveal the warnings beneath. One of the possible side effects of the drug is “extreme nausea,” leading Mim to wonder if her misplaced epiglottis may be linked to the drug. Mim tells Kathy that she’s blind in her right eye. This is the first time she’s ever told this to anyone, and she did it because “sometimes a thing’s not a thing until you say it out loud” (342).