In Chap­ter XXXV, the ten­sion and emo­tion­al atmos­phere rise as the Beau­mont fam­i­ly arrives at Sali­na Hope Hos­pi­tal’s crit­i­cal care unit. Mom­ma embraces her children—Rocket, Fish, Sam­son, and me—while express­ing her wor­ries about Pop­pa. As she holds us close, Rock­et inquires about my recent birth­day, not tru­ly seek­ing details about cel­e­bra­tions, but per­haps try­ing to gauge how I am cop­ing with my new­found savvy.

Mom­ma’s con­cern is pal­pa­ble as she seeks to learn about my expe­ri­ences since we were last togeth­er, espe­cial­ly regard­ing my savvy. When Sam­son men­tions Pop­pa, Mom­ma’s smile betrays her sad­ness, her eyes fill­ing with tears as she nods in acknowl­edg­ment of their father’s sit­u­a­tion. The fam­i­ly approach­es the nurs­es’ sta­tion with heavy hearts, and the nurs­es’ sym­pa­thet­ic expres­sions reflect their under­stand­ing of their dis­tress.

A nurse in cheer­ful blue scrubs address­es Mom­ma, who intro­duces her chil­dren as “delinquents—my wan­der­ing adven­tur­ers.” I plead for the chance to see Pop­pa, and Mom­ma empha­sizes how much we need to see him soon. The nurse allows us into the room.

As we move past a main­te­nance man and toward Pop­pa’s room, emo­tions run high. Fish’s ques­tion about whether Pop­pa has wok­en up reveals the ten­sion and fear inher­ent in the sit­u­a­tion. Mom­ma gen­tly informs us that Pop­pa has­n’t awak­ened and that the doc­tors indi­cate he might not wake at all. This news strikes like a blow, leav­ing me feel­ing unsteady, but Fish sur­pris­ing­ly main­tains his com­po­sure.

Rock­et, des­per­ate not to be left out, insists on enter­ing Poppa’s room, say­ing it would be worse to stay out­side. Mom­ma, torn yet com­mit­ted to keep­ing her fam­i­ly unit­ed, reluc­tant­ly agrees. When she turns to me for reas­sur­ance, I feel pow­er­less and help­less, know­ing I lack con­trol over my savvy and its poten­tial to help Pop­pa.

Ulti­mate­ly, Mom­ma push­es open the door to Pop­pa’s room, and the fam­i­ly enters qui­et­ly, pre­pared to face the real­i­ty of his con­di­tion, where he lies with­out the vital­i­ty of Sleep­ing Beau­ty, evok­ing deep feel­ings of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and hope amidst the uncer­tain­ty.