Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

Aven’s dad wants to apply for a job as manager of a Western-themed amusement park in Arizona. Aven thinks that Dad must be crazy to want to work there, and jokes that aliens or the government must be controlling his mind. Aven does not want to leave Kansas and everything she has known all her life. However, she also knows that her dad has been out of work for months, ever since the restaurant he used to manage went out of business, so she gives her approval for Dad to apply for the position at Stagecoach Pass. Dad assures Aven that Arizona is a nice place: he and Aven’s mom spent time there when they adopted Aven. Plus, Arizona is warm in the winter, and Aven can play soccer all year there. Aven’s dad gets the job, and her mom signs on as co-manager. They pack up their belongings and move to Arizona. When she sees Stagecoach Pass for the first time, a shabby theme park in disrepair, Aven quips that now she is sure her Dad’s mind is being controlled.

Arizona is bright, hot, and brown. Aven is not impressed with Stagecoach Pass, which seems to be a collection of worn, old-fashioned buildings sitting on packed dirt. Aven and her family meet Gary, the mustachioed park accountant. Gary tells them not to expect to meet the owner, Joe Cavanaugh, who never visits. The Green family checks out their tiny new apartment over the steakhouse, and Aven explores the park. The heat forces her into the tiny, air-conditioned park museum, which holds some unexciting artifacts. Nonetheless, old photographs reveal that Stagecoach Pass was once a vibrant location. Before she leaves with her dad to play soccer in the empty rodeo arena, Aven notices that a photograph of the Cavanaugh family is missing.

Aven anxiously attends her first day at Desert Ridge Middle School. It is much larger than her old school in Kansas. Aven’s mom is unusually sympathetic and reassuring, which makes Aven even more nervous. While the school staff is kind and friendly, their repeated offers of help irritate Aven. In her first class, Aven turns down an offer of help from a dark-haired girl sitting near her, showing the girl that she can open her book using her toes. The girls do not introduce themselves. Aven decides to have lunch outside by herself but notices a crowd has formed to see how she eats. She realizes this school is not like her old school, where everyone knew and accepted her. Suddenly self-conscious, Aven gives up on eating, and reads instead.

Aven compares living in Stagecoach Pass to living in a “Disney Shanty Town” (24). Sixty years ago, when the park first opened, it must have been an exciting place to visit. Now, it is rarely busy. The city has built up around it, and the park has more empty buildings than attractions. A dated shooting gallery, the museum, a gift shop, a movie theater, and an old jail are some of the park’s highlights. Aven gets to know Henry, the elderly man who works at the ice cream counter and gets everyone’s order wrong, and who thinks Aven likes tarantulas. She meets the park psychic, Madame Myrtle; Bob, the irascible gold mine operator; and Denise, who runs the petting zoo. Aven also meets Fred the camel, Billy the donkey, and Spaghetti, an old llama with a tumor. Avoiding her mom’s questions about the first day of school, Aven explores behind the buildings and discovers a locked shack filled with odds and ends. Despite signs that warn intruders away, Aven wants to go inside, but she cannot get the door open.

When Aven’s mom discovers that Aven did not eat lunch, she reassures Aven that she has “nothing to feel embarrassed about” at school (32). Aven agrees but misses her old school and her close friends, Emily and Brittney. Mom surprises Aven with a new computer and a blog site. Mom suggests Aven blog about soccer, a sport Aven excels at thanks to her dad, who first introduced it to her as a way for them to bond. Aven writes her first blog post, but she writes about how awful school is, especially her first art class, where everyone stared as she told the teacher she did not need help, and then set up her paints alone. Aven understands that people are curious about how she does things, but wishes she knew how to make friends when everyone considers her a “freak.”

The next day, Aven again cannot bring herself to eat in front of the other students and hides in a bathroom stall to eat her sandwich. She overhears a conversation between two other girls about a cute boy who looked at one of them, and Aven wryly reflects that she gets lots of looks from boys—but not for the same reason. Aven does not want to eat in the bathroom again and tells herself to “stop being such a coward” (41). The following day, she sits outside to eat. Three stylish girls approach her. Aven hopes they will ask her to sit with them, but instead they ask what happened to her arms. Aven explains that she has a genetic disorder. The girls ask if her condition is contagious, and when Aven explains it is not, the girls leave. Aven is discouraged that they were only interested in her out of curiosity and fear.

In the evenings, when the air is cooler and the sun is setting, Aven likes to walk through Stagecoach Pass. She greets Henry and Spaghetti, and avoids irritable Bob. Aven climbs up a large, cactus-strewn hill. There, she sits and contemplates a tall, seven-armed saguaro cactus. The saguaro is over 200 years old, and Aven thinks about all the things that have happened in its lifetime, from the Civil War to Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights advocacy. Aven knows that she and her problems are just another “insignificant event” in the saguaro’s long life. But in her own life, smaller challenges are significant: it matters to Aven that the kids at school avoid her because she makes them feel awkward.