Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

Aven visits the football coach, Coach Devin, who recognizes her as a friend of Lando’s brother. Aven introduces herself and explains that Lando quit the football team because of Joshua Baker. Coach Devin knows this and responds that it is important to learn to work with people you may not like. He does not know the reason behind Lando’s dislike of Joshua. Aven confirms with him that the school has a “strict anti-bullying policy” (251), and explains Lando was not being bullied, rather Joshua was targeting her and Zion. She tells Coach Devin everything that has happened to her and Zion.

Family and friends gather for Spaghetti’s memorial service. Aven smooths over her differences with Zion. Lando explains that Joshua was suspended and now cannot play football, and Coach Devin has asked Lando to return to the team. Lando knows Aven was behind the change, and thanks her for supporting him. Aven wants to talk about his drawings, but other guests arrive, including Josephine accompanied by Milford on a sociable outing. The group, along with Connor, Denise, Trilby and her parents, and other workers climb the hill with the big saguaro cactus on top.

Before speaking, Aven thinks about how used to think her life was insignificant compared to the important events the cactus had witnessed. Now, she realizes the events in her life are important to her. Additionally, she now also has a large group of friends and family who care about her. She gives a eulogy for Spaghetti, mentioning how hurtful it is to be treated differently. Connor plays a punk song on his phone, Denise releases Spaghetti’s ashes, and the mourners scream and run away as the wind blows the ashes onto them.

Aven and her mother visit Henry in the hospital. Although shaky and weak, Henry asks how many boyfriends Aven has. Aven responds again that she has none, and probably never will. Henry focuses clearly on her and angrily tells Aven to get over her insecurity. Trembling and tearful, Henry tells her to never allow people to make her feel inadequate. Henry says that he allowed people to do that to him and he held onto the emotional hurt from it his whole life. He did not have people to tell him he was significant, but Aven does. Henry asks Aven to believe in herself. Aven agrees. Aven then asks Henry for something that she does not share with the reader. On her next horseback lesson, Aven tells an excited Bill she is ready to jump. Aven moves Chili faster and faster, but as the jump approaches, she forgets what to do. She launches into the air and flies off the horse, landing on the ground. As Aven passes out, she thinks she will die like her birth mother.

Aven awakens on the ground and finds Bill and her parents looking over her with concern. Aven is confused. Bill suspects she has a concussion. Aven is proud she attempted the jump and realizes that she faced her worse fear, and though she was injured, she survived. She now knows she can handle anything. A doctor confirms she has a concussion. Her parents take her out to dinner, which Aven cannot stomach, and she tells them everything that has been happening to her. Her parents are emotional. Her mom cries and thanks her for sharing, while her dad is furious with Joshua. Her mom assures her dad that Aven is working things out on her own. Aven agrees, saying that high school started out rough, but knows she will overcome her problems. She is no longer scared to return to school and has plans for Halloween.

Aven receives an email with a phone number. When she calls the number, she introduces herself and speaks to a man she located with Find My Family. Aven’s parents are supportive, and her mom emotionally cannot wait to meet him. After they discuss the upcoming meeting, Aven and her parents join Trilby’s family at a punk rock concert. Aven’s dad is trepidatious, and worries about Aven after her head injury, but she promises to stay out of the mosh pit. Trilby’s dad reassures Aven’s dad that the band is not too hardcore. Trilby shaved her hair because it was too conformist and decorated her head with hair chalk. Aven’s mom exuberantly enters the mosh pit as Aven’s dad records her. Aven realizes her parents both love each other and like each other. Aven feels comfortable at the concert and thinks it is like Comic Con. The rockers’ clothes are expressions of themselves, as the costumes were at Comic Con. Aven realizes that for her, the “Man” is people like Joshua and Janessa who are cruel and make her feel inferior. Sometimes, Aven herself is the “Man.” Aven thanks Trilby.

At school, Aven wears her newly refitted Armless Master costume to school for Halloween. At their lunch table, Zion compliments her, and they debate whether they are too old to go trick or treating. Lando, dressed as Captain America, bursts into the cafeteria, gaining everyone’s attention. Stage acting, he seeks out Aven, pretending that the Armless Master has challenged him. Aven, though apprehensive, gives herself some positive affirmations and responds to the challenge. Lando pulls her close and asks if he can kiss her. Aven rejects her past fear and her memory of Joshua, knowing that now she is more confident and that Lando is different from Joshua. Aven’s first kiss is everything she’d dreamed about: unique and different like her. Lando makes a dramatic exit, and the cafeteria returns to normal. Zion thinks their little drama did not follow the comic book characters’ storylines and Aven calls him a geek. Aven looks at Lando’s table and two girls smile and wave at her. Aven waves back with her foot.

Aven visits Henry, who is weak but lucid. She assures him she is following his advice, then says she has visitors for him. Aven introduces Robert and his father Walter, who uses a wheelchair. They have flown out from Chicago to see Henry. Walter is Henry’s long-lost brother and has been searching for Henry all his life. Henry is shocked and emotional. Walter, the oldest, was five when their parents died and could not care for Henry, or their sister Nora who was three at the time. She is also missing. Walter thought both Henry and Nora were dead. Both men cry as they clasp hands.

Aven, Connor, Amanda, Zion, and Lando decorate the steakhouse for a combined welcome home and goodbye party for Henry. Aven and Amanda discuss starting a punk band, with Aven and Zion on guitar, Amanda on piano, Trilby as lead singer, Connor on drums, and Lando learning guitar. They name themselves Kids from Alcatraz since “Alcatraz” is an acronym of the first letters of all their names. Trilby says she thinks the name means that their music will help others break out of social conformity. Aven’s dad acts as the party’s DJ. Aven teases Josephine about her boyfriend Milford, saying she will soon have a grandpa as well as Grandma Josephine. Josephine tears up when Aven calls her grandma. Walter, Robert, Robert’s wife, and Henry, in a wheelchair, arrive. Henry agrees that he is ready to retire but will not return to Chicago and live with Walter. Aven is surprised, but Henry insists that his true family are the people around him: Aven, her parents, and Josephine. He will stay at the Golden Sunset home with Josephine.

Aven’s mom is surprised that Aven used the Find My Family kit for Henry instead of finding her birth father, but Aven insists her true father is onstage playing music. Aven’s parents give her a green electric guitar as a present to celebrate the start of high school. Trilby and Zion and Josephine and Milford pair up to dance. Lando asks Aven, and as the two sway, Aven says Lando’s drawings look like what she is inside. Lando says her character’s superpower is to do her own thing and not care what others think. Connor cuts in, wondering if Lando is Aven’s boyfriend, because he would be jealous. Aven is unsure, but admits she is a little jealous of Amanda. The two reassure each other that they will always be best friends.

The next day at school, Aven thinks about how she feels she will survive high school and stops focusing on the negative. She writes a blog post listing 20 positive things about school. Her list includes looking at the large student population as potential friends, Comic Con, watching football games featuring handsome Lando, “[b]ullies getting the justice they deserve” (298), Fathead molting successfully, family reunions, horseback riding, first kisses, and gaining the wisdom to not feel embarrassed because of what others say and do. Aven also counts attending the punk concert—where her mom proudly ended up with a black eye—and different ways Aven’s friends have stood up for her and supported her.

On the day of the horse show, Aven’s mom and dad surprise her at the petting zoo with a new, three-legged baby llama they got from a rescue. Aven is thrilled. Though she still feels the loss of Spaghetti, she knows it is time to move forward. She names the baby llama Lasagna. Connor and his dad attend the horse show. Aven gladly meets Mr. Bradley, who has heard a lot about Aven and vice versa. Connor is giving his dad a second chance at a relationship because that’s what Aven, who sees the good in people, would do. Bill is proud of Aven for riding Chili again after her fall. Aven now plans to rebound from her setbacks and not let anyone discourage her. Aven sees all her friends and family in the stands at the show. As she approaches the jump on Chili, she hears Henry’s words telling her not to try to be confident, but to believe in herself. She jumps and does not fear a fall.