All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Grandma’s narrative covers Val (Wavy’s mother) and her relationship with Liam (Wavy’s father). Val gets pregnant in high school and runs away with Liam. Liam and Val become drug dealers and end up in trouble with the law. Grandma has to pay for Val’s lawyers, spending money she had hoped to use for college funds for Amy and Leslie, Brenda’s daughters.

Wavy comes to live with Grandma, refusing to speak or be touched. Toys and gifts do not move her. Grandma tries alphabet flashcards with Wavy only to discover that Wavy knows full well how to write and spell. She chooses not to communicate.

When Grandma enrolls Wavy in school, Wavy runs away the first day because the teacher keeps hugging her. Her grandmother visits the school to talk to the teacher and realizes they have placed Wavy in a classroom for students with disabilities. Grandma enjoys watching the counselor’s face when Wavy not only writes her alphabet but draws and names constellations: “The way the counselor’s jaw dropped down set me to giggling” (17).

For two years, Wavy improves under Grandma’s care. Two events change her course: her mother’s release from prison and the return of Grandma’s cancer. Despite Wavy’s aunt Brenda’s skepticism, Grandma hopes Val will step up and care for Wavy and Donal, the son Val gave birth to while incarcerated.

Wavy is with Grandma when she dies; she describes drawing Ursa Minor on the palm of her hand. She learned the constellations from a kind neighbor named Mr. Arsenikos—a refuge when she lived with her mother before Val’s incarceration.

When Wavy returns to live with her mother after Grandma’s death, she quickly steps in to protect Donal from “Scary Mama,” the one who rejects her rehabilitation program and medications. Scary Mama fears disorder and filth, though she smokes meth, gets drunk, and doesn’t take care of her children. Wavy reveals why she won’t eat in front of people: Her mother thinks mouths are dirty and has poured Listerine into Wavy’s mouth because “bad things could get in through your mouth and make you sick” (21).

Though she will lose her spot in the rehabilitation program for it, Val sees Liam, Wavy’s father. She has always told Wavy not to call Liam her father, not to touch him, and not to trust him. In the middle of the night, Val gets Wavy and Donal out of bed. They all leave with Liam and move to a hotel, where Val is “Happy Mama” for a few days. Then Liam beats and abandons Val again. As Val once again neglects her children, Wavy learns to care for her brother.

Wavy walks in the meadow near the farmhouse where she now lives with Val, Liam, and Donal. She hears a motorcycle and steps onto the road, distracting the rider, who skids out. At her first sight of Kellen, Wavy describes him as “bigger than everyone who made [her] feel small” (26). However, he’s injured badly. Wavy helps him stand up and walk to the house. Kellen asks her if she is real, speculating that she might be an angel. In order to save Kellen, Wavy not only has to be touched—Kellen leans on her shoulder to make it to the house—but also to speak. Kellen asks her to make a phone call to Liam for him, and she relays the news of his accident. Kellen asks her name; when she tells him, it is the first time she has ever said her name out loud.

Waiting for help to arrive, Wavy sees that Kellen is losing blood and “getting lost.” She points to the sky and identifies the constellations for him. After Liam and Butch leave with Kellen, Wavy considers talking to him if she sees him again.

Kellen’s extensive injuries keep him from visiting Wavy again immediately, but as soon as he heals, he returns to his former job: running meth for Liam. Eventually, he makes his way back to the farmhouse, which he describes as pitifully filthy. He encounters Val in bed, unaware of where her children might be. A few months later, after his bike is repaired, Kellen rides back to the house and finds Wavy getting ready for school and tending to Donal.

Kellen gives Wavy a ride to school and wonders why Liam’s child has no idea how to ride on the back of a motorcycle. Wavy is reluctant to hold on to him, which makes Kellen anxious about her during the ride. He worries about leaving her at school, fearing she is being bullied. Then he goes back to the house, washes the dishes, and cleans and feeds Donal. He even tries to bring Val food, seeing her in twisted, dirty sheets. She sends him away.

He returns to pick up Wavy, bringing her back to the cleaned farmhouse. She reacts with confusion at first, asking him about the pain from his accident injuries. Kellen tries to tell her he feels lucky she found him and that the accident wasn’t her fault, but they both know it’s not true.

Lisa DeGrassi, who is new to teaching, is Wavy’s third-grade teacher. Lisa has little knowledge of Wavy’s background but observes that Wavy exceeds her peers in intellectual capacity while showing antisocial traits: Wavy doesn’t talk, she reads her book throughout PE class, and she refuses to eat in front of people. Lisa encounters Wavy’s mother in two different incarnations: under the influence, dirty, and disheveled versus hypervigilant and germophobic. Lisa also meets with Kellen, who she believes is Mr. Quinn, Wavy’s father. She never learns who he is, and his silence only reinforces her sense that the family is beyond help. Lisa DeGrassi decides that helping Wavy is too much work.