Chapters 13: Meanwhile,
in the Subplot…
Chelsea
really had been volunteering at a homeless shelter during the airing of Double Overtime’s first episode; that
wasn’t just a convenient excuse for her to continue avoiding Vinny. But
apparently Misty, the other groupie, didn’t know that and assumed that Chelsea
had seen the episode and is now mad at her.
Chelsea
had actually recorded the episode on her VCR. I get that she’s been homeless
and bought all her belongings used but I’m surprised that she’s found a working
VCR. I thought I was the last person to have one of those (although I can now
no longer use it since I don’t have a tv that will allow it… I digress.)
She was happy with her
tag-sale furnishings and Craiglist purchases for the most part…
(127).
I
think the author must be from New England. I have never heard anyone in
Pennsylvania (where I grew up) refer to a “tag-sale” (I had no idea what those
were when I first got to Massachusetts for college.) They’re just yard sales or
garage sales in PA.
At
any rate, the thing that Misty is worried about is, surprisingly, not about
Vinny. Instead, Misty had spoken directly to the camera about Chelsea’s “dream
of running a shelter geared toward women and children” (127). And she has good
cause to be worried, since Chelsea is quite upset that Misty “broadcast [her]
dreams on television” (127). She’s upset about losing her privacy, something
she never had during all her time homeless.
Misty
at first claims she didn’t know that the footage would be used but within a few
sentences she turns around and announces that she did it on purpose in the
hopes that putting Chelsea’s plans into the public consciousness in the hopes
that “by morning, some rich philanthropist is going to want to donate a jillion
dollars to make sure you have the chance to do good in the world” (128).
I
would say that that’s not how things
work. It’s one soundbite on a documentary tv series that I really can’t imagine
is going to be all that widely watched (the plan for making a financially
successful show notwithstanding) and not even given by the person who wants to
do the good in the world. On the other hand, this book has been absolutely
littered with wildly improbably things, so let’s find out if within the next 20
pages Chelsea gets her dream…
What
does happen for sure is that Chelsea paused her VCR’s playback on an image of
Vinny. This is enough for her to realize she’d made a mistake by breaking
things off even though she was scared. Remember, though, the days when you used
a VCR and you paused things? The almost certainly super-awkward pose of the
person on screen? The weird wavy lines that went through the image? She
slightly shaking picture?
Chelsea
confesses her fear and Misty points out that everyone is scared to meet their SO’s parents, let alone girls who
have had, shall we say, challenging past lives. There’s some wibbling and some
touching of the tattoo of Vinny’s number (over her heart, of course) but
Chelsea decides she’s going to ask Vinny for a second chance.
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