28 pages 56 minutes read

Quiara Alegría Hudes

Water By The Spoonful

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2012

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Act II: Scenes 7-15

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Act II

Scene 7 Summary

Haikumom/Odessa and Fountainhead/John meet in person at a diner. Odessa tries to convince John to go to a rehab facility. Elliot and Yaz come into the diner to find Odessa. They are upset because she didn’t come to meet them at the flower shop earlier. Yaz and Elliot want Odessa to pitch in for flowers, but she says she does not have the money. John tries to leave as the family argues, but Odessa orders him to stay. Elliot, very angry with Odessa, tells John the story of his younger sister, who died aged two. The kids had the stomach flu, and Odessa followed instructions to give Elliot and his sister, Mary Lou,spoonfuls of water every five minutes. After doing this for a while, Odessa left the children alone, presumably to go get high. When a neighbor broke into the house, they found Mary Lou dead from dehydration. After Elliot tells the story, Odessa tells Elliot to pawn her computer and use the money towards the funeral flowers. 

Scene 8 Summary

Orangutan and Chutes&Ladders chat online. Orangutan talks Chutes&Ladders through calling his estranged son. The son picks up and says, “Hello,” and Chutes&Ladders hangs up without speaking to him. Chutes&Ladders tells Orangutan that there was no answer.