Counting by 7s

“Mai does the lion’s share of the speaking and eating (I give her my cone once I’ve had enough), and all I know for certain, with the sun on our faces and the sweet ice cream holding our attention, is that this is a day that I will never forget.” 

Willow's description of this ideal, unforgettable day with her new friend within the opening pages of the book provides foreshadowing of her parents' accident. Roberta and Jimmy die that day, and this, of course, changes Willow’s life forever.

“If you are picturing this trio and considering us together, I want you to know that while I don't in any way resemble my parents, somehow we just naturally look like a family. At least I think so. And that's all that really matters.” 

Describing herself with her adoptive parents, Willow asserts that family members do not have to look similar in order to feel like a family. After Willow loses her parents, the novel's main characters all reconsider their definitions of family and just how far they are willing to go to help a family member. This quote develops the theme of redefining family.

“When Fallen was finally strong enough to fly, I reintroduced him back to his flock. It was incredibly rewarding. But it was also heartbreaking. It has been my experience that rewarding and heartbreaking often go hand in hand.” 

Willow remembers saving and parenting the baby parrot in her garden, which serves as a symbol of her future situation: the Nguyens take her in and eventually she joins their “flock.” The entire process, for everyone involved, is both rewarding and heartbreaking at times. 

“But Dell had always had an issue with organization. He couldn’t throw things away because he had trouble figuring out what had value and what didn’t. Plus he liked the comfort of possessions. If he couldn’t belong to something, at least something belonged to him.” 

Dell, like many other characters, struggles with feeling like he belongs somewhere. For him, this feeling manifests as hoarding junk at his house, which is one of the first things to change when Willow and the Nguyens move into his apartment. His lifestyle changes will serve as markers of his transformation from a lazy, selfish man to a responsible family member.

“Dell found himself wondering if all kinds of assumptions were questionable. And that was Strange indeed.” 

After witnessing Quang-ha's drawing ability, Dell decides that his label for Quang-ha is no longer accurate. This throws a wrench in Dell's system, and the realization that categorizing people is futile is something Dell continues to learn throughout the course of the book. Willow is initially the character that disparages labels, and in Dell’s character change, the author suggests Willow’s positive influence on Dell. 

“Jimmy’s hand reached over and touched his wife’s arm and at the exact moment that he made this connection, the world literally came apart.” 

This is the moment the medical supply truck hits Jimmy and Roberta, which changes the other characters' lives forever. This moment is filled with dramatic irony and significant imagery: they both die shortly following Roberta's cancer diagnosis (which they intended to keep a secret from Willow), they are hit by a medical supplies truck (#807), and the crash is the result of the truck driver speeding through a red light (Willow's favorite color).  

“The next thing we knew, we were all in Dell Duke’s dusty car, heading out of the parking lot to Fosters Freeze. And that’s where it all began, really. Because as I watched the school district offices recede into the distance, I was certain that the old dynamic between Dell and Mai and me was over. And endings are always the beginnings of something else.” 

In another instance of dramatic foreshadowing, Willow is describing the current group dynamic changing, not knowing that this day is actually the beginning of their new family. The old dynamic between Mai, Dell, and Willow is over not just because Mai convinced Dell to take them out for ice cream, but because the end of Willow's parents' lives marks the beginning of the group's new familial relationships. 

“I am twelve years old and already twice without parents. If you analyze the odds of being given away at birth and then losing another full set of legal guardians 147 months and 7 days later, I’m right on the edge of the graph. In the one percent of the one percent.” 

Willow reflects on the tragedies she has experienced, and though she is emotional and feels smothered by her grief, she still considers her situation with a scientific and analytic mind. She still perceives time in multiples of seven, indicating that the number's significance does not completely vanish following the accident. 

“I am a shadow. I no longer dream in color. I don’t count by 7s. Because in this new world I don’t count.” 

Deep in her grief, Willow cannot bring herself to count by sevens anymore, which was one of her defining character traits. She leaves her interests and habits behind in the “old world,” before the accident, because it is too painful for her to hold onto them after her parents' death. This is the first shift in Willow’s character and develops the theme of the characters’ ability to change and grow. Here, the change is starting, and later, the growth will appear. 

“He had made a mistake by ever getting involved with the genius kid. Because it was a lot easier to do his job and not care about anything. And now he cared about everything.” 

Dell regrets ever meeting Willow because he is overwhelmed by the elaborate lies he and the Nguyens are tangled up in for the sake of protecting her. These feelings are in stark contrast to when he first met Willow and he was excited to take advantage of her intelligence, which signifies his transformation from being selfish and unmotivated to being caring and invested in a student's well-being. 

“These women wrap themselves in their stories from the minute they walk through the glass door until the second they leave at the end of the day. They use words to build something that is as real as cloth. And while they complain in lower voices, about one another, they are joined by blood and circumstance and shared experience. They are part of something bigger than themselves.” 

Even though learning Vietnamese allows Willow to communicate with the Nguyens as if she were part of their family, overhearing the manicurists speak about their lives makes her envious of their tightly knit community. They are just gossiping and complaining, but it pains Willow to recognize that she does not belong to an extended “tribe,” and that the only people she felt truly bound to are now gone.

“I have seen trees that survive fire. Their bark is burned and their limbs are dead branches. But hidden under that skeleton is a force that sends a single shoot of green out into the world. Maybe if I’m lucky, that will one day happen to me. But right now, I can’t see it.” 

The burning imagery Willow uses echoes the first time she sets foot in the Nguyens home: she is so overcome with the pain of losing her parents that she wishes the garage could burn down with her inside. Now, after some time has passed, she sees herself as a damaged, burnt tree, but she is hoping that someday, once she makes it through her grief, she will be able to begin the process of re-growing.

“For a brief moment, because everything in this room is so different, I forget that I don’t have a mother or a father or a place to call home.” 

After transforming Dell's apartment to make it look like the Nguyens lived there, Willow feels comfortable enough with everyone that she is able to momentarily suspend her grief and feel at ease in her new “home.” This marks a significant milestone in her grieving process, and this new setting ultimately does become her new home with her new family.

“It is a seed, after all, and they are by definition the beginning of something.” 

When Willow finds the acorn that Mai secretly placed for her to find, she keeps it with her as a lucky charm. This happens the night the Nguyens and Willow move into Dell's apartment, which mark the beginning of their new lives at the Gardens of Glenwood.

“If I’m sent by the state of California to foster care in a remote location with no Internet and no books and no vegetables, where I will live with a family who secretly worship Satan and only eat canned meat, then so be it. Until then, my life is at the Gardens of Glenwood. And I’m thinking this place needs a real garden.” 

Willow imagines the worst-case scenario for her permanent foster care placement but has processed her grief enough that she feels ready to face it. It is in this moment that she feels ready to start gardening again, indicating she is returning to a new state of normalcy.

“Because the truth was that, as frustrated and angry as he first felt, he had to admit that once his junk was all gone, and the rest of his things were put into some kind of order, he had started to feel stronger [...] Because for the first time, in as long as he could remember, Dell belonged to something.” 

Dell has transformed dramatically from when the author first introduces him in Chapter 5. Willow and the Nguyens have turned his life upside down, but he no longer has to hoard possessions because he finally feels a sense of belonging somewhere. 

“Finally, I’m introduced to a man with a large right ear and an almost nonexistent left ear. Just a nub, really. The man has a scar on his neck on the nub side. He doesn’t look like a fighter, so my guess is he was in an accident. Human ears have successfully been grown on the back of rats and then attached to the head of a human by grafting. Obviously, I don’t bring this up. But I want to.” 

This moment marks the first time since the accident that Willow has a desire to discuss someone's medical condition. Her interest in gardening has returned, and now her interest in giving medical diagnoses and advice has returned as well, indicating she is returning to her true self. 

“Connectedness. One thing leads to another. Often in unexpected ways.” 

Willow is reflecting on the chain of events that led to her new family having to power wash Dell's entire apartment complex, but it speaks to the larger theme of connectedness. Roberta and Jimmy's deaths cause life-changing ripple effects not just for Willow, but for the Nguyens, Dell, and Jairo.

“Right now I’m the sunflower. Temporary, but attaching myself to the ground underneath me. The garden is challenging me, as always, to see my own situation.” 

In another garden metaphor, Willow conceptualizes her current situation like that of her sunflowers. She is unsure of her future, not knowing where she will be permanently, but she is enjoying her temporary time with the Nguyens enough to attach herself (at least partially) to them and their home.

“He’s still silent as he takes a seat next to me on the stairs. More silence. Then he turns and says: 'I don’t want to know how you did it. I want to believe that you’re magic.'” 

Quang-ha, in a moment of uncharacteristic sincere emotion, expresses his awe of Willow's garden. He has been the character most resistant and reluctant to accept Willow into his life, but it is with the inspiring garden transformation that he finally fully accepts her.

“As we are climbing into the bunk beds, I explain to Mai that everything is in shock, which happens when a plant is first put down into new soil. I know from experience that some things will thrive and others will wither. Only time will expose the difference.” 

Describing the process that the new garden plants will undergo, Willow is also symbolically describing herself. Just like the plants, she’s endured transplantation, and the trauma she experienced could have made her wither, but she remained resilient and is ready to grow.

“Standing in the light of a partial moon, he watched the water come out in gushes of icy silver. And even though he was freezing cold, Dell took his time watering Willow’s new garden. The honeysuckle vines were taller than him now, and as he looked them over, he realized that one of the buds was beginning to open. He knew for certain that it would be magnificent.” 

The act of watering her garden, especially in the middle of the cold night, is symbolic of Dell's care and love for Willow. The honeysuckle bud unfurling parallels Willow's thoughts at the beginning of the school year when she imagines herself as a rare plant “prepared to unfurl hidden layers” (25). All of the characters have significantly transformed by then end of the book, revealing new, previously unseen parts of themselves. 

“This is one of the secrets that I have learned in the last few months. When you care about other people, it takes the spotlight off your own drama.” 

After saying goodbye to Dell and the Nguyens, Willow quickly finds herself worrying about them. She has learned that worrying about others provides a distraction from one's own troubles, which is exactly what happened when she entered the lives of the Nguyens, Jairo, and Dell. The challenge of figuring out what to do with Willow put things into perspective for everyone and made previous worries inconsequential.

“I know that I will think about this day many times. Then I realize that it is the 7th of the month. And I’m not surprised.” 

Echoing the opening pages of the book, with the unforgettable day of her parents' death, Willow reflects on her adoption by Pattie and Jairo. The number seven has become important to her once more, marking a significant step in processing her trauma and grief. The date parallels the day she Jimmy and Roberta adopted her, which was also the 7th day of the month.