In the chap­ter titled “Dizzy,” we find Dizzy stand­ing on the porch in warm sun­light, grasp­ing her father’s hand. She feels a strange mix of calm and fear­less­ness, no longer anx­ious about her big broth­er Wynton’s fate or her own self-image. Reflect­ing on a trans­for­ma­tive moment from a sto­ry that inspired her, she won­ders if some­thing mag­i­cal is hap­pen­ing in her life. How­ev­er, her broth­er Miles is con­sumed by anger, con­fronting their father—who has aban­doned them—about his absence and how much they need­ed him, par­tic­u­lar­ly Dizzy, who is only twelve.

Miles’s emo­tion­al out­bursts appear to strike their father painful­ly, and Dizzy tries to pro­vide com­fort through her grip. The sit­u­a­tion esca­lates, and she learns a shock­ing truth: Cas­sidy, a girl who had saved her life, is actu­al­ly her sis­ter. The dis­cov­ery excites Dizzy, who real­izes that Cassidy’s exis­tence is a mir­a­cle of its own. She con­cludes that hav­ing a sis­ter is even bet­ter than the mirac­u­lous abil­i­ties she fan­ta­sized about.

Dizzy urges her father to retrieve a trum­pet and help wake Wyn­ton, who is in a coma. Ini­tial­ly, he refus­es, caus­ing dis­be­lief and frus­tra­tion in both Dizzy and Miles. Despite Dizzy’s des­per­a­tion and insis­tence, their father seems defeat­ed, fail­ing to grasp the hope their plan offers them. When he goes inside, Dizzy feels a sink­ing dis­ap­point­ment. She longs for her father’s pres­ence and affec­tion, yet rec­og­nizes the heart­break of his absence.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates when their father reveals he had told their moth­er nev­er to find him and admits he is not the man they hoped for. This rev­e­la­tion dis­heart­ens both Dizzy and Miles, leav­ing them strand­ed in their own feel­ings of aban­don­ment and con­fu­sion. Dis­ap­point­ed and real­iz­ing that love can be unrec­i­p­ro­cat­ed, Dizzy grap­ples with the harsh real­i­ty of their fam­i­ly’s shat­tered dynam­ics as they pre­pare to leave with­out their father.