Heaven

Shoogy tells Marley a story about a time when she was six years old and had a “screaming, crying fit” in front of a full audience at one of her pageants (68). When she could not find her mother sitting in the usual spot, Shoogy panicked, lay down on the stage, and began crying. Although she took part in a few more competitions after this incident, she began exhibiting harmful behavior, such as cutting her thigh with a fork and cutting off all her hair with nail clippers.

After telling Marley about her parents, the girls climb to the top of the town’s water tower and share a cigarette from Mrs. Maple’s secret stash. Shoogy asks Marley if she remembers anything about Uncle Jack. Marley does not, but she thinks she might have remembered something when they were at Lake Erie the other day, writing it off as a dream.

Shoogy goes quiet for a moment and then points to a distant tree top and asks Marley if she could make it to the tree top if she jumped from the water tower. Shoogy begins howling, and Marley tells her to be quiet, lest someone find them on top of the tower.