Too Bright to See

Bug wakes from his dream. He hears Moira screaming in the bathroom: The bathroom floor is covered in long dark hair, and Bug realizes he has a buzz cut. Bug is confused at first, then realizes that it must have been Uncle Roderick’s ghost who shaved his head in the night. Everyone agrees that a shaved head suits Bug, though nobody understands what has happened.

The girls give Bug a moment alone in the bathroom. He looks at himself in the mirror. For the first time, he sees himself in his reflection. Every other time he has looked in the mirror, he has “seen a girl, and not seen [himself]” (132). He realizes that this is what Uncle Roderick was trying to tell him all along: He is not a girl, but a boy.

At breakfast, Moira tells her mom that Bug’s hair looks good, and Bug notices that she does not use the word “she” to describe him. This makes him happy, like the two friends finally understand each other. When Bug hugs Moira goodbye, he finally feels like “a boy hugging a girl, as friends, and it’s the first time that hugging her doesn’t make [him] feel awkward” (134).