The Book of Form and Emptiness

Benny is excited to remember this day with Kenji and recalls the lunar globe that Kenji bought him. They played a game in which one of them would spin the globe and stop at a random point then have to tell a story about it. Benny recalls Annabelle’s story about the Sea of Fertility. After a trip to the moon, a female astronaut returns to earth and finds that she cannot stop having children. The more children she has, the harder it is to convince the children to stay on earth. They want to return to the moon, and the mother has no choice but to watch them leave. Benny remembers being upset by the mother in the story being left alone, so he and Annabelle write an alternate ending in which one son stays behind with his mother.

Benny expresses his doubts that Kenji was completely happy as a father. He believes that Kenji was searching for a way to feel more alive towards the end of his life, which is why he would often cope by smoking marijuana. 

Benny returns to school, and Annabelle takes the bus with him each morning to make sure he attends. The teasing and bullying immediately resume, but it doesn’t bother Benny because he feels “numb and detached, like everything in his life was happening at a very great distance” (325). The voices have also grown quieter.

Annabelle has a conference with the principal and agrees with Benny’s need for a more specific educational plan. The public school is legally required to meet Benny’s educational needs, and they create a team of mental health, counseling, and educational specialists are put together to oversee Benny’s education. Annabelle adopts a new attitude with Benny at home, insisting that Benny answer her questions on how school is, what he is feeling, and what he’s done that day. Still, Benny keeps secret the fact that his concussion was from a baseball bat and the wound in his hand from the Bindery.

Annabelle cautiously asks Benny about Alice, noting how strongly he reacts to any mention of her. She suggests that Benny should focus on finding friends of his own age and tries to comfort him, but Benny pushes her away. 

Benny talks about the spoon he carries everywhere with him. The spoon gives him the impression of being loved, that he can “feel the memory of beautiful lips” (334) and happiness in the spoon’s voice. Kids at school tease him about the spoon, and one day, a bully takes the spoon from Benny and throws it onto the roof of the school. Benny can’t get to it and must accept that his spoon is lost forever. Whenever Benny passes that spot, he can hear the spoon humming happily, waiting to be used again.

Dr. Melanie prescribes Benny new medications. She falsely believes that Benny’s lethargy, depression, and weight gain are side effects of his current medication and not the struggles he faces in school or in his broken heart over Alice. Though he and Alice texted frequently following the incident at the Bindery, she has gradually stopped communicating with him until she no longer answered his texts. He tries to call her but finds his number has been blocked. Benny convinces himself that she is in some kind of trouble and needs his help.

He asks Annabelle to take him to the library after school one day, ostensibly to research for a science project. He goes down to the Bindery but is confronted by a librarian who tells him he can’t be in the staff areas. Benny runs upstairs to the fifth floor where he expects to find the men’s bathroom where he drank vodka with Slavoj, but he only finds a blank wall. Benny becomes paranoid and thinks about his question “What is real.” His paranoia convinces him that Alice is tramped behind the wall. He concludes the wall must be hiding the entrance to the bathroom and tries to bust through it. Library security finds him and escorts him to their office.

The librarian that finds Benny is Cory, the same librarian that once read during story time in the Children’s section. Annabelle runs into the office prepared to ask security for help in finding Benny and is relieved to find him already there. 

Benny says his new medications are making him paranoid and delusional, and that’s why he tried to break through the wall. He remembers Cory with affection because she came into their lives when Annabelle needed a friend.

During math class, Benny receives a text from Alice telling him to sneak out of class and meet her in the parking lot. She and Slavoj arrive in a van and take Benny camping in the mountains. Slavoj talks about how Benjamin once walked through the Pyrenees mountains, hoping to find refuge from the Nazis in Spain; throughout that trip, he carried a briefcase full of the writings that would become his next book. Benjamin made it into Spain, but officials there tell him they will deport him back to France the next day. Benjamin commits suicide that night. The next day, Spanish authorities officially open the borders for refugees.

Benny asks Slavoj where Alice has been, but Slavoj won’t answer. They begin hiking up a trail and find a camping spot near a rocky promontory. Alice unpacks food for them and finally tells Benny that she relapsed on heroine and has been in rehab. While she was away, her ferret, TAZ, accidentally ate rat poison in the warehouse and died; they can no longer live in the warehouse in honor of TAZ’s memory. She brought TAZ’s body to the mountain to find a burial spot. Benny is touched that Alice wanted him to be present for the funeral. When Slavoj falls asleep, Benny and Alice hike further up the mountain to find a proper resting place for TAZ.

Annabelle frantically cleans the house in anticipation of No-Good's inspection later that day. Each time she takes a garbage bag to the curb, she admires the crows that gather around the house. She feeds them every day and believes “they [are] fond of her” (360). Because of their connection to Kenji, the crows are her only source of comfort and friendship.

Alice and Benny hike to the summit. As they admire the view, Alice tells Benny to close his eyes and listen: The voices of nature are “the realest thing he’d ever heard” (362). They give TAZ a sky burial, leaving his body out in the open to decompose naturally. They begin talking about the story that Benny wrote about the table leg, which Slavoj had shown to Alice.

Benny confesses his fear that he will become like Slavoj in the future, homeless and without a secure place in society. Benny’s insensitivity irritates Alice, and she argues that society forces them to believe only a certain kind of mental health is acceptable while people like Slavoj and Benny are pushed to the margins. She explains how Slavoj has cared for her since she ran away from home; Benny shouldn’t be ashamed for who he is and should embrace his mind’s unique capabilities.

Benny texts Annabelle that he’s with friends and won't be home until the next day, but Annabelle is too focused on cleaning to check her phone. While trying to take Benny’s baby carriage outside, Annabelle falls down the steps and hits her head. As she loses consciousness, she feels the crows landing on her and “spreading their feathers to keep her warm and dry” (369); it begins to rain.

Benny is distraught at the Book’s recounting of Annabelle’s fall. He feels guilty that he wasn’t there and that he missed seeing the crows trying to protect her.

After TAZ’s sky burial, Alice and Benny return to the campsite. Alice tells Benny that Mackson has returned to college and is no longer around, giving Benny some hope that Alice might fall in love with him. Alice reassures Benny that she and Mackson are not a couple but close friends that collaborate to run the peer support group.

The three of them settle into sleeping bags as night falls. Slavoj talks of capitalism, space junk, pollution, and other environmental damage. Benny becomes agitated when think about losing the natural beauty around him. As his anxiety reaches a crisis point, Alice calms him by holding his hand. Soon, they all fall asleep.

No-Good arrives to inspect Annabelle’s home and finds her unconscious on the steps. He is horrified that the crows might be eating her alive and swats them away. Annabelle wakes up as No-Good calls for an ambulance. While being treated by the EMTs, Annabelle notices No-Good peeking into the house to assess how well she has cleaned up. The house is still full of objects she wasn’t able to get rid of in time.