Summary
When Theo wakes up in Hobie's apartment, he feels horrible, staggering around and trying to get himself together. Hobie walks in, and Theo immediately asks him not to send him back to Vegas. Hobie insists that he won't send Theo back and asks about Theo's grandparents, prompting Theo to nervously explain that his grandparents don't want to take him in. They agree to visit Bracegirdle together, and Hobie lets Theo stay with him and Pippa.
Theo has constant nightmares about the painting, and wakes with a start when Pippa takes Popper, Xandra's dog, from his hands. He doesn't have much to do at Hobie's and is overjoyed when Boris texts him from the MGM Grand, where he is staying with Kotku and several older kids from their school. He tell Theo to keep in touch, but Theo doesn't hear from him for a long time after that text.
He spends the next few days in a feverish haze, and starts to bond with Pippa. She makes him a small origami frog, and looks through his iPod, which is filled with his mother's music. He stares at her longingly, and she finds his seriousness comical. He feels like she is one of the only people that understands him, and he wants to ask her about the explosion, but restrains himself.
When Theo calls Bracegirdle, he finds out that there was a way to withdraw the money in his account, but that Bracegirdle knew that something was wrong, given his mother's horror stories about his father. Theo imagines what life may have been like if he was able to withdraw money from his account, and the thought that his father might be alive if he had transferred the money sends him into a fever dream.
Pippa wakes him from his dream to tell him she is leaving for boarding school. She is going to Mont-Haefeli, a boarding school for troubled girls, but is sent there against her will by her aunt because most schools are hesitant to take her due to her brain injury. As Pippa leaves, Theo finds comfort in going through her things, and cocoons himself underneath her covers.
Theo and Hobie visit Bracegirdle, and Hobie becomes Theo's temporary guardian. In order to avoid being sent to boarding school, Theo starts studying for an early-college program. When he finally takes the test, his anxiety shifts to a newspaper article revealing that several pieces of art stolen after the explosion were recovered in the Bronx.
When he researches the case, he realizes that he can't tell anyone about the painting, as Hobie could get in trouble as well. Unsure of what to do, he drugs himself, and tries to take solace in the fact that most art theft is not discovered unless the thief tries to move or sell the art.
Theo is accepted by the early college program. Luckily, the program isn't as hard as the admissions exam, and there are no requirements, no tests, no exams, and no grades. Though his teachers try to encourage him to do extracurriculars and to participate in class, Theo completes the minimum amount of work required of him, and mostly runs on autopilot. In his spare time, he walks around the city, but is constantly reminded of his mother and father, and misses Boris and the lack of expectations and future plans that came with him.
Since Bracegirdle still sees his living arrangements with Hobie as temporary, Theo does everything he can to help Hobie around the shop, and to avoid being sent to the dormitories of his early college program. He is especially anxious about someone finding his painting, and on several occasions, Hobie comes close to finding the painting.
When he develops a relationship with the movers who brings antiques to and from the shop, he realizes he can put the painting in a storage container. After dropping the painting in a random storage unit and paying for it for two years in advance, he decides to drop by his old apartment building, but instead sees it boarded up and mostly torn down. He finds out that his old building has been sold to make way for new condos, and he walks back to Hobie's, disturbed that the final physical link to his mother and their time together is gone.
Analysis
After he arrives at Hobie's shop, Theo is "so topsy-turvy and deranged with fever" that he barely registers anything around him (473). Theo has strong physical responses to negative events in his life, and this fever is an almost complete shutdown of his body, as his world is upended and his body processes his loss before he can. In the midst of his fever and illness, he also experiences frequent nightmares about the painting, and his return to New York also increases his anxiety and his proximity to his theft. As he eventually recovers, Theo starts to comes to terms with his father's death and his loss of Boris.
Pippa consoles Theo, and her visits mirror his visits after the bombing. Theo still feels a strong bond with Pippa because she was also a part of the bombing, and he is still struggling to be understood and validated. He wants to talk to her, but restrains himself, preserving the distance between her identity and the fantasy he has created of her.
When Theo meets with Bracegirdle, he learns that he may have been able to save his father. Theo realizes how similar he is to his father, and bears the guilt of having killed another parent. Theo again enters a fever dream, but when he wakes up, Pippa announces that she is leaving for boarding school. Theo's guilt is partially alleviated by Pippa's absence, as he mourns her departure and takes solace in his memories of her.
Chapters 7 and 8 document Theo's transition into life with Hobie and into relative external stability. While he attempts a better life, he is still held back by his anxiety over the painting, and the trauma and guilt of both of his parents' deaths. When he starts a pre-college program, he does the bare minimum, and tries to find distractions. Theo is still coping with his losses, but his teachers don't understand his pain or his lack of achievement. Even though Theo's past continues to haunt him, the expectations placed on him remain the same, as very few people can empathize with Theo.
A glimmer of hope arrives when Theo finally drops the painting in a storage unit. But, this distance and momentary relief also comes with the knowledge that his old apartment building has been demolished. As Theo tries to distance himself from his guilt and grief, he also loses many of the past things that he cared for and cherished, as the world around him continues to change even as he clamors to preserve his memories of the past and the solace they provide him.
