Mosquitoland

Mim leaves Beck and Walt in their seats to get a pretzel. While she is waiting in line, a young child asks their mother for food, and she yells at the child. Mim chastises the woman, and everyone in the line claps. The man in front of Mim is wearing the same shoes as Poncho Man, and seeing this makes her vomit. He yells, and she runs to the bathroom. Mim returns to her seat seeming upset, and Beck admits that he’s on this journey to visit his foster sister, whom he hasn’t seen in a long time.

Mim writes to Isabel to explain an important memory: She was eight, and she and her mom were listening to records in the garage. Eve said that Jimi Hendrix went crazy, probably from “Drugs and fame” (222), and Mim’s dad got upset at Eve for saying something like that to an eight-year-old. Mim remembers hating her dad in that moment.

Mim is starting to love Walt and Beck—she views Walt with a maternal love and Beck with a romantic adoration. Beck asks Mim if she believes in God, and Mim recalls a time when a man with a disfigured face told her that God made him that way. As a result, she’s always been afraid of the idea of God. Beck admits that he believes in God because humans are too complex and miraculous for God not to exist. 

Mim, Beck, and Walt pull up to Beck’s foster sister’s townhouse. Mim notes the “architectural apathy” of the building, which means that each townhouse in the neighborhood looks the same and boring. The townhomes are in a poor area of town, and Beck’s foster sister, Claire, looks like she’s seen better days. Beck reluctantly goes to the door while Mim and Walt stay behind in the truck. With Beck inside, Mim can’t resist her curiosity; she sneaks up to the open window to listen to Beck and Claire’s conversation.

Mim wipes off her war paint in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant. When she gets back to the table, Beck thinks she’s blushing because a residue of the lipstick remains on Mim’s cheeks. Beck mentions the idea of taking Walt to Chicago to reunite him with his family. Mim feels sad thinking about their friendship and journey together coming to an end.

Mim writes to Isabel to tell her about Kung Pao Mondays with her mom. Mim and her mom used to eat at the Evergreen Asian Diner every Monday. One day, they were having fun until her mom opened her fortune cookie. Eve’s cookie had a blank piece of paper inside, meaning no fortune. She broke down and cried. 

Mim is already in the truck when Beck and Walt join her. Walt is complaining that he’s “all wrong,” and he has a fever. There are no hospitals or doctor’s offices in the area, so Beck takes Walt to a veterinarian. A beautiful woman, Michelle, greets them covered in blood. She explains that a dog’s spleen ruptured during surgery. She washes up and examines Walt.

Mim contemplates how she’s grown so fond of Beck so quickly, when previously it’s always been difficult for her to form connections with people. She tells him that she doesn’t know how to say bye to him, and he says, “I know,” implying he feels the same way. She says that when the time comes, maybe it won’t have to be a “solid good-bye,” meaning that hopefully there will be the possibility to see each other again one day. Beck holds her hand, and she rests her head on his shoulder.

Walt and Michelle reappear, and Michelle says that Walt will be fine; he just ingested too much MSG at the restaurant. She charges them $200, and Walt pays for it out of his “father-money.” Mim goes to retrieve his money from the truck and finds a picture of Walt and his mom in his belongings. Walt looks happy in the picture, and Mim knows that they have to get him back to Chicago.

Mim jokes with Beck about how he should have gotten Michelle’s number, and they eventually come around to the topic of Claire. Beck reveals that he promised Claire he would always be there for her, but he feels like he failed. When he visited her, she said that she didn’t even remember him. Mim thinks back to how her dad met her step-mom, Kathy. They went out to eat, and she’s the one who suggested Denny’s, the very place where her dad met Kathy.