Chapters 27-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 27 Summary: “Before”
In the past, after he and Sam argue, the narrator takes to following Nurse Ella around the hospital, helping her with her rounds. Ella finally has enough of Sam constantly following at her heels and takes him to Sam’s room, where she makes them talk about their problems. The narrator, who breaks the rules of reality, does not understand what love is. This upsets Sam, who only wants to hear that the narrator loves him the same way he loves the narrator. The boys make up, but Sam’s condition deteriorates—he tells the narrator not to lose hope.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Soul Bared to Paper”
Hikari grieves the death of her friends by collapsing in on herself. She goes to the places they spent time together—Neo’s room, the garden, specific hallways—to talk to them as if they are still physically with her. Sam follows her each time. Hikari both welcomes his presence and resents him; she accepts his comfort but resents that he reminds her of her pain and the friends she’s lost. When she goes to Neo’s room, she finds his parents there. Neo’s clears out Neo’s papers and plans to burn them. She fights to keep the papers, but his father refuses.
