Chap­ter 7: Joe delves into the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties of Ben’s life, a man who is con­fined to his bed as he faces the dual bur­dens of phys­i­cal pain and the inevitabil­i­ty of his mor­tal­i­ty. His days are mea­sured in the most tan­gi­ble way, with each pass­ing day marked off on a small cal­en­dar, a grim reminder of the lit­tle time he has left. Although his body is frail, the pres­ence of his fam­i­ly, includ­ing his broth­er Ben and daugh­ter Leah, offers some com­fort. Leah, in par­tic­u­lar, becomes a source of light in Ben’s oth­er­wise dark world. She arrives every Tues­day, bring­ing with her a warmth that tem­porar­i­ly alle­vi­ates his suf­fer­ing. How­ev­er, despite her affec­tion, there remains an emo­tion­al dis­tance between them, as Leah has nev­er once called him “Dad.” This sub­tle, yet sig­nif­i­cant gap weighs heav­i­ly on Ben, as he is acute­ly aware of the unre­solved issues between them.

Dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tions, Ben’s mem­o­ries flood back, tak­ing him to a time when his sis­ter Ruthie dis­ap­peared from their lives. Leah’s casu­al men­tion of Ruthie’s dis­ap­pear­ance serves as a haunt­ing reminder of the pain that has nev­er been ful­ly processed by the fam­i­ly. This inno­cent remark sparks a con­ver­sa­tion that unearths deep emo­tions and unre­solved grief, show­ing how much Leah has yet to under­stand about the past and her family’s his­to­ry. The men­tion of Ruthie acts as a cat­a­lyst for Ben to reflect on the life he once had, full of joy and con­nec­tion, before it was shat­tered by her sud­den loss. For Ben, the grief of los­ing Ruthie has nev­er ful­ly left him, and Leah’s ques­tions bring it all rush­ing back, forc­ing him to con­front both the hope and the despair that have col­ored his family’s past.

Ben’s thoughts turn dark­er as he recalls the after­math of los­ing Ruthie and, lat­er, his broth­er Char­lie. The weight of these loss­es con­tin­ues to haunt him, and though the fam­i­ly attempts to move for­ward, it is clear that the pain of the past lingers in the back­ground. Ben, who once threw him­self into mul­ti­ple jobs to sup­port his fam­i­ly, now sees the futil­i­ty of their efforts to rebuild. Mean­while, Mae, his part­ner, con­tin­ues to strug­gle with her own sense of inde­pen­dence, find­ing it dif­fi­cult to nav­i­gate a world that seems indif­fer­ent to their suf­fer­ing. Amidst this, Ben’s past polit­i­cal activism stands out, high­light­ing his pas­sion for fight­ing injus­tices that affect­ed the lives of those around him. The men­tion of his activism serves as a reminder of Ben’s once fer­vent belief in mak­ing the world bet­ter, even as the weight of per­son­al loss begins to over­shad­ow his efforts.

The nar­ra­tive takes a dra­mat­ic turn when Ben’s broth­er returns from Boston with star­tling news: he claims to have seen Ruthie alive in the city. This rev­e­la­tion sends shock­waves through the fam­i­ly, ignit­ing a mix­ture of hope, dis­be­lief, and emo­tion­al tur­moil. The pos­si­bil­i­ty that Ruthie could still be alive stirs up long-buried emo­tions, cre­at­ing an atmos­phere of ten­sion with­in the fam­i­ly. Ben, who has lived for years with the belief that Ruthie was gone, is torn between the hope of reunit­ing with her and the skep­ti­cism that the truth might be far more com­pli­cat­ed. The con­flict­ing emo­tions that this new devel­op­ment brings threat­en to desta­bi­lize the frag­ile equi­lib­ri­um that the fam­i­ly has man­aged to main­tain, draw­ing them back into the emo­tion­al chaos that the dis­ap­pear­ance once caused. This moment is a turn­ing point, one that forces Ben and the oth­ers to grap­ple with their past while attempt­ing to look toward the future.

As the chap­ter con­cludes, Ben is left to nav­i­gate the painful mem­o­ries of his past, all while the weight of expec­ta­tion press­es down on him. The pos­si­bil­i­ty of find­ing Ruthie offers a glim­mer of hope, but it is tem­pered by the years of despair and loss that have defined his life. This emo­tion­al strug­gle encap­su­lates the com­plex­i­ty of Ben’s jour­ney, where hope and regret col­lide. The chap­ter paints a vivid pic­ture of the uni­ver­sal human strug­gle with loss, as well as the endur­ing nature of famil­ial love and long­ing. Ben’s reflec­tions serve as a poignant reminder that, even in the face of over­whelm­ing sor­row, the flick­er of hope can push us for­ward, even if only for a moment. The uncer­tain­ty of whether Ruthie will ever tru­ly be found leaves the family—and the readers—wondering if clo­sure is ever tru­ly achiev­able when the past still holds such pow­er over the present.