Pictures Of Hollis Woods

Hollis wakes up early one morning and tries to do the homework she forgot about the previous night. She hears that there’s snow in upstate New York where the Regans live and wonders what life would be like if she lived with them. Realizing she will never finish all her homework before school, Hollis decides to skip again and walks out to the pier with Henry the cat following her. As the narrator, she says, “I knew it was a mistake. But still I kept going” (63). The captain of a local boat offers to pay her to help him clean the boat, and she is excited to have some money to buy food.

Hollis walks home happily, but when she arrives, the mustard woman is in the living room. Josie is making lengthy small talk with her, and Hollis realizes Josie can’t remember who the mustard woman is. Finally, the mustard woman says, “I think, Mrs. Cahill, that we need to talk about another place for Hollis” (66). She explains she’s found a family for Hollis to live with, and that, while Hollis doesn’t need to move there right away, she’ll start visiting them soon. When the woman leaves, Hollis can’t help nastily pointing out to her that she has an “extra large” sticker attached to the back of her sweatshirt.

Hollis is on her way to give Izzy a picture she’s drawn of her flipping the amazing pancakes she always makes. Hollis remembers a visit with Izzy to a nearby cemetery where Izzy’s parents and a six-day-old child she gave birth to are buried. Izzy explains that she was never able to have more babies after that child died, though she wanted a big family. In the cemetery, they can hear the Old Man and Steven yelling at each other far away. Hollis asks if this always happens, and Izzy says “It does seem worse this summer. […] But they have to find their own way” (69). This statement worries Hollis a lot.

Returning to the moment when she’s planning to give Izzy the drawing, Hollis overhears Izzy and the Old Man discussing whether Hollis will be able to keep living with them when they leave their summer house. Not knowing Hollis is listening, both parents agree she belongs with them, and they make hasty plans to add a room to their winter house so the agency will let her stay. They won’t be able to complete it fast enough for her to come with them right away, but they imagine they could do it by early fall. They refer to her as their daughter. Hollis briefly remembers the stucco woman calling her a “mountain of trouble,” but brushes it away, believing that she will finally have a family.