Boy, Snow, Bird

Charlie responds to Boy’s letter by suggesting that she doesn’t owe him anything; Boy believes this means he must be interested in someone else, so she replies to bid him farewell. He replies that she knows where they stand; she replies that she doesn’t, so he tells her he’ll be whomever she wants him to be, to come home and they’ll square things with her father. This alarms Boy, so she dials back the game, then stops responding to his letters, believing that they were really “meant for the Grace Kelly look-alike in his mind’s eye” (43).

After several months without a response, Charlie writes to her assuming that she’s met someone else; he tells her she has an attitude problem and chastises her for having stolen money from her father when she left. Boy isn’t sure what to make of the letter; she shows it to Mia, who, contrary to Boy’s expectations, doesn’t laugh, and tells her that she believes Charlie might really love her.

Boy finds work as a telephone operator, which she finds lucky except that her route to work coincides with Arturo’s morning runs. One morning, Arturo slows down and asks her when they’re going on another double date; she replies that she never wants to see him again, and he replies with only “Oh,” and continues on his run.