Not Nothing

Alex actually starts looking forward to his meetings with the social worker, because he gets to talk about everything he is learning about the residents. The social worker commends Alex’s work at Shady Glen, including standing up for Ginny and Dickie, but Alex still feels like he isn’t doing anything overly special. 

The social worker mentions asking some residents, particularly Josey, for letters of reference to give to the judge on Alex’s court date in September. Alex hates being reminded of it and hates the idea of having to tell anyone, especially Josey, about what he did. When the social worker mentions the word “opportunity,” Alex tells the social worker why he hates the word. He explains that when he told his school he was hungry and needed food, they told him he had opened up “opportunities” for help. What that meant, in the end, was losing his mother.

Josey continues to share stories of his past. He tells of how he lived in the forced labor camp called Plaszow, in which there were gallows for hanging prisoners and a mass grave for the bodies. He was forced to work in extreme conditions, and quickly began to lose hope of his life ever being different again.