Cassidy’s life, as she reflects in this chap­ter, unfolds with the steady move­ment of her nomadic exis­tence. Along­side her moth­er, Marigold, they make their home in a vibrant yel­low RV, fond­ly named Sadie Mae. Their jour­ney is one with­out roots, a con­stant shift­ing land­scape that stretch­es across the vast Cal­i­for­nia coun­try­side. Marigold, ever the opti­mist, sees their lifestyle as a pur­suit of enlight­en­ment, call­ing them­selves mod­ern pio­neers who are forg­ing a new path out­side the con­straints of con­ven­tion­al liv­ing. It’s a way of life that’s free from the bound­aries of society’s expec­ta­tions, a free-spir­it­ed exis­tence that feels lib­er­at­ing yet also iso­lat­ing for Cas­sidy, as she is left to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of her own desires and the world around her.

Despite the roman­tic view of their trav­els, Cassidy’s expe­ri­ence is a mix­ture of won­der and iso­la­tion. She recalls moments of pure joy, such as shop­ping at thrift stores or dress­ing up in var­i­ous cos­tumes, where they weave a world full of col­or and cre­ativ­i­ty. It is in these moments that Cas­sidy feels the bond between her and her moth­er, a bond that is both play­ful and some­what strained. Cas­sidy’s curios­i­ty often leads her to ask about The Town, a place that promis­es to offer a sem­blance of normalcy—school, friends, and the kind of rou­tine that oth­er chil­dren seem to take for grant­ed. But as they jour­ney on, the search for this place seems increas­ing­ly elu­sive, and Cas­sidy is left feel­ing unmoored, uncer­tain of what to anchor her­self to in the absence of what she envi­sions as a “nor­mal” life.

As the nar­ra­tive unfolds, Cassidy’s strug­gle with her iden­ti­ty becomes more pro­nounced. The con­trast between her own desires for sta­bil­i­ty and her mother’s con­stant rejec­tion of tra­di­tion weighs heav­i­ly on her. Marigold’s eccen­tric­i­ty, though endear­ing at times, often leaves Cas­sidy to won­der where she fits into the pic­ture. She feels like a shad­ow of her mother’s wild spir­it, exist­ing in her orbit rather than ful­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in the world around her. Cassidy’s yearn­ing for con­nec­tion is pal­pa­ble as she longs for some­thing stable—something that would help her define who she is, rather than liv­ing in a state of flux. In the absence of con­ven­tion­al friend­ships and rou­tines, Cassidy’s sense of self becomes cloud­ed and uncer­tain. The void she feels only grows as she watch­es Marigold embrace free­dom while Cas­sidy is left yearn­ing for a sense of home and ground­ed­ness in a world that remains tran­sient.

The emo­tion­al cli­max of the chap­ter occurs when Marigold, in a moment of errat­ic deci­sion-mak­ing, releas­es Cassidy’s trea­sured col­lec­tion of insects. This act, while seem­ing­ly harm­less to Marigold, ignites a firestorm of emo­tions in Cas­sidy, reveal­ing the depth of her need for con­nec­tion and secu­ri­ty. The loss of her beloved crea­tures, espe­cial­ly her favorite, Awe­some Crea­ture, becomes a sym­bol of the deep­er loss she feels in her rela­tion­ship with her moth­er. In this vul­ner­a­ble moment, Cassidy’s grief is com­pound­ed by her inabil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate her hurt and frus­tra­tion to Marigold. The bugs were not just a hob­by for Cas­sidy, but a way of anchor­ing her­self to some­thing real in an oth­er­wise uncer­tain world. They were the few things in her life that she could con­trol, a form of com­fort amidst the chaos that defines her exis­tence. Their dis­ap­pear­ance under­scores a sense of help­less­ness that Cas­sidy often feels in her rela­tion­ship with Marigold, as if her needs and desires are rou­tine­ly dis­missed.

As the chap­ter con­cludes, Cassidy’s sor­row takes on a poignant form, hint­ing at the lone­li­ness that is woven into her exis­tence. The bugs were more than just crea­tures for her to col­lect; they were a means of hold­ing on to some­thing real, some­thing con­stant in a world that seems to shift beneath her. The emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of their rela­tion­ship deep­ens as Cassidy’s inter­nal bat­tle between love and betray­al inten­si­fies. Her desire for her mother’s affec­tion and sta­bil­i­ty is con­stant­ly thwart­ed by Marigold’s neglect, leav­ing Cas­sidy to won­der if she will ever find the con­nec­tion she craves. The sto­ry hints at a deep­er frac­ture with­in their bond, one that may take more than just time and effort to heal. As the chap­ter ends, Cassidy’s reflec­tion on her mother’s actions speaks vol­umes about her grow­ing under­stand­ing of the world and her place with­in it, set­ting the stage for fur­ther emo­tion­al explo­ration in the chap­ters to come.