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Back All the Water in the World Save as PDF
Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. PART I
  4. Eve
  5. 1
  6. Maddy
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. Eve
  12. 6
  13. Maddy
  14. 7
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. Eve
  19. 11
  20. Maddy
  21. 12
  22. 13
  23. 14
  24. 15
  25. PART II
  26. Eve
  27. 16
  28. 17
  29. 18
  30. 19
  31. Maddy
  32. 20
  33. 21
  34. Eve
  35. 22
  36. 23
  37. Maddy
  38. 24
  39. 25
  40. Eve
  41. 26
  42. 27
  43. PART III
  44. Eve
  45. 28
  46. 29
  47. 30
  48. 31
  49. 32
  50. 33
  51. 34
  52. 35
  53. 36
  54. 37
  55. 38
  56. 39
  57. Coda
  58. 40
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. Reading Group Guide
  61. About the Author
  62. Copyright

As for your other questions, I think that is something for your mother to tell you about. It was a long time ago. I want you to know that I am happy that you got in touch with me, and that I can get to know you a little through these emails. There is of course a lot more to say! Who knows, maybe it will be possible to meet each other one day. It is much easier to talk about complicated things in person.

Antonio

Dear Maddy,

I am impressed by how much you are doing. Music, art, a campaign, not to mention your schoolwork. How do you fit it all in? You must have a lot of energy.

My sons are getting ready to start school again. They complain about the end of the summer but I think secretly they are glad to get back and see their friends. Are you looking forward to school starting? What classes are you taking this year? How is Jack? I would love to hear your news.

Antonio

25

When my cat ventures into an unfamiliar place, she takes a few steps, turns around, and sniffs the doorway to identify her escape route. Then she finds the lowest surface to sit under and stays put. Nothing can get to her while she figures out where she is and what’s what. After the visit to Fallingwater, and the day Dr. O told us we were out of options and my mother completely lost it, they dismantled Robin’s table and moved my bed down to the dining room, and I took up residence there on millions of pillows. I was right in the middle of the house and whatever was going on. But I felt like I was under a low surface, waiting.

At first, Jack’s voice lifted my spirits like nothing else. So did the sight of him in the doorway, taller than before and softer around the eyes. He was more polite with adults than ever. It was as if he had become a concentrated version of himself. He sat by my bed, entertaining Cloud, holding my fingers lightly in his half-closed hand, and playing our favorite YouTube clips, of the lion ecstatically reuniting with the people who had raised him from a cub, and dogs running the wrong way on escalators. Before, when we laughed at the clips, I wanted the lion and the dogs as pets. Now I wanted to be them.

Over the summer, Jack had gone on vacation and we’d barely had a chance to talk about junior year and what it might be like back at school now that we were together. Good thing, really. Without saying too much, we could just slip from the in-between state we’d been in all along, to my new existence in the dining room, a place so wrong for a bed it hardly called to mind the other uses of beds.