See You in the Cosmos

Alex records a description of his activities while Terra sleeps. He goes to the grocery store for food, then cooks pork chops, mashed potatoes, and spinach. He looks forward to his mother’s arrival home. He wakes Terra, tells her Janine Maplethorn found Carl Sagan, and offers Terra a new toothbrush. Alex then climbs to the roof to see if he can spot his mother walking home: “I’ll go look for my mom again!” (220). The iPod picks up Terra’s comments. She sees Alex’s tesseract and asks Alex for aspirin, but he cannot hear her. At this point Alex falls off the roof and onto a section of fence in the yard. Terra hears him screaming and rushes to help. She calls for emergency aid—“Hello! Hello! Help! My brother he…” (221)—but ends up taking Alex in her car.

Terra makes this audio recording when she arrives back at Alex’s house at 3:00am. She is emotionally distraught and rambles. She says that she called Ronnie, Alex’s house, and her own mother from the hospital but that everyone was asleep. Back at Alex’s house, she explains that Alex fell off the roof where he climbed up with Ken’s telescope. She pulled “that stick or whatever it was. A piece of the fence” (225) out of Alex’s side. Terra has trouble thinking clearly: “And then I tried putting the leftovers in the fridge but I was having trouble doing the simplest things, it took me ten minutes to find Tupperware the right size” (225).

Terra also wonders aloud on the whereabouts of Alex’s mother. She says it seems like no adult lives there, and realizes she never heard Alex speak to his mother on the phone. There are piles of coupon flyers stacked in his mother’s bedroom, and a dent in her car. Terra begins to worry about the conditions: “How is it possible, how could he live in this house all by himself? What is going on?” (224).

Terra makes another recording. Alex is not “in a regular room” yet. She speaks to Ronnie by phone, growing angry when she realizes he does not intend to come home: “I was like, What’s wrong with you, Alex needs to be with family, and then Ronnie goes off on me like, who am I to know what’s best for his family” (227). She also asks about Ronnie’s and Alex’s mother, and Ronnie says he will try to find her. Terra listens to Alex’s recordings again but grows upset when she listens to the one from the night at Steve’s and Zed’s apartment, ashamed of her own behavior. She leaves the hospital and drives aimlessly around Rockview. At a gas station she buys a pack of gum but has trouble opening it.

Terra records a conversation with Alex in his hospital room. Though Alex cannot talk, the text of the chapter includes pauses in the recorded audio showing when Alex nonverbally responds to Terra. The audio picks up Alex’s groans. Terra tends to Alex by offering the iPod and sips of water, but her intention in this conversation is to try to learn from Alex the truth about his mother. She asks how long Alex’s mother is gone on her walks, and determines from Alex’s responses that his mother is gone at least days at a time: “No? So DAYS? OK, days… […] Alex, I have to go make a call, OK? I’ll be right outside” (231). Terra does not say whom she calls.

Terra records a new conversation in Alex’s hospital room. He is now able to speak. Steve arrives with takeout from Johnny Rockets but Alex is on a liquid-foods-only diet. Zed is outside Alex’s hospital room with Carl Sagan. Steve and Zed drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to pick up Carl Sagan, then drove “all night and morning” (234) to get to the hospital. Terra and Steve apologize to one another. Terra updates Steve on Alex’s mother: “Still no sign of her. I went back to the house yesterday ‘cause I had to get a picture of her to e-mail the police” (235). Ronnie arrives and, after reuniting with Alex, learns Terra is his half-sister. He is angry at Terra for what he perceives as interfering with Alex and their mother. Ronnie argues with Terra in the hallway, with the iPod picking up some of their dialogue; Ronnie wants to know what Terra told “them” (238). Ronnie leaves and Terra follows him, and Steve tells Alex, “Ronnie and Terra are trying to find your mom” (239).

The next day, Alex records an update while waiting for discharge from the hospital. His mother, found by Ronnie and Terra, is “in a hospital in Belmar” (241). Alex explains that Ronnie needs information: “[…] and he said he wants me to try to remember if there’s anyone else who might know about me being at home by myself besides Terra and the guys. Especially when our mom goes on her long walks” (241). The list includes many people, including neighbors and teachers. Ronnie is upset and tells Alex to stop telling everyone about their mother and Alex’s unsupervised activities. Ronnie leaves, but Steve and Zed arrive to watch TV with Alex and meditate.

Alex reveals that Terra finally tells him the truth: His mother has schizophrenia and recently walked to Belmar and took a bath in a shopping mall fountain. Alex cannot visit her yet. Back at his house, Terra and Ronnie go through years’ worth of tax and medical records. Ronnie wants Alex to stay inside. Alex plays and naps with Carl Sagan. When Alex wakes up, he and Zed discuss how Terra and Steve are conversing in the driveway. Zed tells Alex that Steve, inspired by Alex, their trip to Las Vegas, and meeting Terra, broke up with his girlfriend because he realized it was a “crummy relationship” (249). Terra cries, however, and Steve walks down the street. Zed and Alex both feel the sadness, and Alex wonders if his alien audience feels sadness too.