The Fault in Our Stars pdfdrive com

Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home
One swing set, well worn but structurally sound, seeks new home. Make
memories with your kid or kids so that someday he or she or they will look
into the backyard and feel the ache of sentimentality as desperately as I did
this afternoon. It’s all fragile and fleeting, dear reader, but with this swing
set, your child(ren) will be introduced to the ups and downs of human life
gently and safely, and may also learn the most important lesson of all: No
matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can’t go all the
way around.
Swing set currently resides near 83rd and Spring Mill.

After that, we turned on the TV for a little while, but we couldn’t find anything
to watch, so I grabbed An Imperial Affliction off the bedside table and brought it
back into the living room and Augustus Waters read to me while Mom, making
lunch, listened in.
“‘Mother’s glass eye turned inward,’” Augustus began. As he read, I fell in
love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.
When I checked my email an hour later, I learned that we had plenty of swing-
set suitors to choose from. In the end, we picked a guy named Daniel Alvarez
who’d included a picture of his three kids playing video games with the subject

---

line I just want them to go outside. I emailed him back and told him to pick it up
at his leisure.
Augustus asked if I wanted to go with him to Support Group, but I was
really tired from my busy day of Having Cancer, so I passed. We were sitting
there on the couch together, and he pushed himself up to go but then fell back
down onto the couch and sneaked a kiss onto my cheek.
“Augustus!” I said.
“Friendly,” he said. He pushed himself up again and really stood this time,
then took two steps over to my mom and said, “Always a pleasure to see you,”
and my mom opened her arms to hug him, whereupon Augustus leaned in and
kissed my mom on the cheek. He turned back to me. “See?” he asked.
I went to bed right after dinner, the BiPAP drowning out the world beyond
my room.
I never saw the swing set again.
*
I slept for a long time, ten hours, possibly because of the slow recovery and
possibly because sleep fights cancer and possibly because I was a teenager with
no particular wake-up time. I wasn’t strong enough yet to go back to classes at
MCC. When I finally felt like getting up, I removed the BiPAP snout from my
nose, put my oxygen nubbins in, turned them on, and then grabbed my laptop
from beneath my bed, where I’d stashed it the night before.
I had an email from Lidewij Vliegenthart.
Dear Hazel,
I have received word via the Genies that you will be visiting us with
Augustus Waters and your mother beginning on 4th of May. Only a week
away! Peter and I are delighted and cannot wait to make your acquaintance.
Your hotel, the Filosoof, is just one street away from Peter’s home. Perhaps
we should give you one day for the jet lag, yes? So if convenient, we will
meet you at Peter’s home on the morning of 5th May at perhaps ten o’clock
for a cup of coffee and for him to answer questions you have about his
book. And then perhaps afterward we can tour a museum or the Anne Frank
House?
With all best wishes,
Lidewij Vliegenthart

---

Executive Assistant to Mr. Peter Van Houten, author of An Imperial Affliction
*
“Mom,” I said. She didn’t answer. “MOM!” I shouted. Nothing. Again, louder,
“MOM!”
She ran in wearing a threadbare pink towel under her armpits, dripping,
vaguely panicked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Sorry, I didn’t know you were in the shower,” I said.
“Bath,” she said. “I was just . . .” She closed her eyes. “Just trying to take a
bath for five seconds. Sorry. What’s going on?”
“Can you call the Genies and tell them the trip is off? I just got an email
from Peter Van Houten’s assistant. She thinks we’re coming.”
She pursed her lips and squinted past me.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m not supposed to tell you until your father gets home.”
“What?” I asked again.
“Trip’s on,” she said finally. “Dr. Maria called us last night and made a
convincing case that you need to live your—”
“MOM, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!” I shouted, and she came to the bed and
let me hug her.
I texted Augustus because I knew he was in school:

Still free May three? :-)
He texted back immediately.

Everything’s coming up Waters.
If I could just stay alive for a week, I’d know the unwritten secrets of Anna’s
mom and the Dutch Tulip Guy. I looked down my blouse at my chest.
“Keep your shit together,” I whispered to my lungs.

---