Here in the Real World

Ware sneaks over to the market after Jolene leaves, hoping to purchase some fruit. He loves the sight of all the colors, and finds some fresh papayas on the checkout counter which he buys to bring home. Behind the woman at the counter, Ware can see a backyard garden, and Jolene and Mrs. Stavros outside. Jolene is eating and laughing, a sound that Ware has never heard from her before.

At the end of the day, Ware heads to the bus stop as usual, but this time his Uncle Cy is waiting for him. Ware dreads having to tell the truth but realizes he has no other option: He takes Uncle Cy to see the church ruins.

Back at home, Uncle Cy and Ware have a talk. Uncle Cy is impressed by Ware’s work at the church ruins and believes Ware to be an artist like himself. Ware admits he feels different, left out, and judged by his parents, and Uncle Cy admits he has experienced all of that as well. He encourages Ware to believe in himself as an artist, whatever form that may take, and offers to lend Ware his film camera to film the wreckage. Ware begs his uncle not to reveal where he’s been going to his parents, and his uncle agrees for now.

Ware takes his uncle’s camera to the ruins and films everything that moves him, including a growing papaya, Jolene’s gardening work, and footage of the wrecked church. Ware starts to feel like the camera is an extension of himself, and he loves the way it captures the beauty in the ordinary.

Ware wants to make the church walls look more like a castle, and dislikes their pink color. He mixes rock dust with glue and water to create a mixture, and uses a makeshift catapult to fling it at the wall. Jolene likes the idea and joins in, and when they’re finished, they sit back admiring their work.

Ware is about to go into the lot one morning when his mother pulls up, looking frazzled and impatient. Ware approaches her, dreading having to tell the truth, but she explains that she forgot to give him a new bus pass and thinks he was just looking for a solution. His mother sees him waving at kids as they go into the rec center and compliments her son on how he has changed and grown over the past few weeks. She adds that he used to always be off in his own world, suggesting that to be a negative thing. Ware considers this and realizes he is still off in his own world, but that there is nothing wrong with that at all.

Ware doesn’t want the moat around his castle to smell or become polluted, so he convinces Jolene that they need to find some water-filtering plants to add to it and keep it clean. He doesn’t know much about holy water, but he does know that it isn’t dirty. Jolene suggests a detention pond behind the school, and they plan to head over there right away.

Ware and Jolene arrive at the detention pond and find some water plants that would be perfect for the moat. Jolene digs in, ignoring Ware’s protests, and in the end, they make three trips carrying plants to the lot. Afterward, a thunderstorm rolls in, and Ware creates a shelter out of a table, a cloth, and some candles. While under the table, Ware admits that his parents wish they had a different child, and Jolene admits that her aunt doesn’t want her at all.

Jolene becomes frustrated when she discovers that caterpillars have been eating her plants. She tasks Ware with cutting plastic cups to protect them, but it doesn’t work very well. When the subject of trash comes up again, Jolene still wants to know about Ware’s grandma’s hips, and Ware reveals that there are other people at the rehabilitation center with organs or body parts that have been removed. Jolene is eager to go there and ask them about it, and they plan to do so the following day.

Jolene stares at a candy wrapper and Ware wonders why she finds it so interesting. She explains that it has a history and came from other materials and places. Jolene also points out that Ware tends to want to turn things into something they are not, like turning the church ruins into a castle, or expecting the world to be fair. Ware suddenly realizes that even people do not stay as they are forever and eventually become something else.

Ware and Jolene arrive at the rehabilitation center the next day, and Ware is still thinking about how people can become something new. The moment they get inside, Jolene spots a trash can and is gone.

Ware goes to see his grandma and is overwhelmed with relief to find her well. He apologizes for not being there when she fell, but his grandma finds that ridiculous and does not blame him for what happened. He asks her if she was afraid during her surgery, but Ware’s grandma explains that having his mother there helped a lot. Having noticed Jolene wandering through the hallways and peeking into the room, Ware’s grandma tells him to go get Jolene and introduce her.

Ware is surprised by Jolene’s manners when she meets his grandma. Ware’s grandma is curious about Jolene, but Jolene just wants to know what happened to her hips, so Ware’s grandma tells her to go ask a staff member about those things. Ware and his grandma talk about Jolene, and his grandma wants to know why she lives with her aunt, why her aunt doesn’t want her, and why Ware knows so little about her. She tells Ware to bring Jolene the next time he comes to visit.