Summary: Chapter 16

Thomas wakes Grandma up in the middle of the night and writes on her palm that he wants to go get her magazines. She tells him to take a suitcase so he can bring her one of everything. She wants to remember this moment in detail because she’s forgotten so many important details, like the last thing her father said to her.

Grandma packs a suitcase with the typewriter and paper and locks up the house. She watches Thomas at the airport. She doesn’t know if she loves him, but she loves not being alone. She approaches him. He explains that Grandma makes him remember and confesses that Anna was pregnant. Grandma tells him she knew, and she’s glad that he knew too. Grandma tells him about the moment Anna told her she was pregnant. Thomas confesses that he’s been seeing Oskar, which Grandma also knew. He tells her he buried the letters he never sent and the key to her apartment. She tries to force him to tell her about the last time he saw Anna, but he can’t. They sit in the airport. He doesn’t want to go home or leave, so she suggests staying there. 

Grandma focuses on the paper in the typewriter instead of Thomas’s face to choose Oskar over him. 

Grandma writes to Oskar about her last night with Anna. She wanted to tell Anna she loved her, but Anna was asleep. Grandma believed she would have another night to tell Anna so saying it was unnecessary. She tells Oskar it’s always necessary.

Summary: Chapter 17

Ron has dinner with Oskar and his mom. Oskar asks Ron why he doesn’t have a family, and Oskar’s mom is horrified. Ron explains that his wife and daughter died in a car accident. He met Oskar’s mom at a grief support group. 

At midnight, Gerald, the limo driver, picks Oskar and Thomas up and drives them to the cemetery. When they get to the part of the bridge that’s not in any borough, Oskar opens the sun roof and sticks his head out. He takes pictures of the stars.