The Orange Houses Chapter 27

TAMIKA

• In Mik's room, seven days before the hanging, Mik looks at all the paper dolls she's made at the VA hospital with Fatima and the kids.
• She imagines a world without walls where animals could roam.
• While she's dreaming of this world, her mom comes in and says goodbye before heading off to work, though not before eyeing the new hearing aids on the dresser.
• Mik takes NaNa her dinner and reads her a Bible passage.
• NaNa asks her to talk about the reading, but Mik says she's got homework. Then NaNa explains that Mik's got to learn to forgive people—especially herself.
• Shanelle's planning on retaliating against Mik with the help of her posse, so Mik asks Jaekwon to leave her alone—and then Gale comes up and makes the point perfectly clear: Beat it, Jaekwon.
• As Mik is leaving school, Shanelle starts yelling out that Mik doesn't have any friends except a terrorist.
• She mocks Mik for a while and then threatens her again, until someone tells her to cool it at school.
• At the hospital, Fatima announces that Mik will lead the class today.
• The kids ask to make angels when Mik suggests they make butterflies. She gets sick of making those, though, so instead she suggests the try making each other.
• The kids think it'll be too hard, but Mik convinces them to do it, and within the hour, they have new paper dolls.