Beautyland

Yolanda K. encourages Adina to push herself. Adina finds that life in New York City continues despite Toni’s death. Adina’s faxes grow contemplative, but her superiors continue their silence. The funeral reception for Toni is held at Toni’s mother’s house. Dominic gives Adina a box that Toni left for her. Adina feels perplexed by what has changed from her childhood. Beautyland has been renovated, but Adina finds the same items for sale. She buys her mother control-top pantyhose, but her mother has stopped wearing them. Adina takes her clothes from the funeral to the dry cleaner, and then gives them away. She opens the box that Toni gave her and finds a phone with the Twitter app. Adina enters a weeping season and spends days in bed. She sees specialists for help and counseling but decides that she prefers exercise classes with Yolanda K.

Adina realizes that she has started using “we” in her faxes about humans. With no response, she wonders what it is she’s supposed to be doing. She thinks that “[h]er superiors have always been a religion she was forced to believe in without seeing” (289), and she wonders if something wiped out their planet.