Sunny Side Up

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of substance abuse, addiction, and domestic violence.

Chapter 15 begins with a flashback to May 1976. Sunny’s mother asks her to go find Dale because is dinnertime. Sunny cheerfully agrees and wanders through the neighborhood, calling Dale’s name. Finally, she stops on a bridge, and when she smells smoke, she slides down the embankment and peers into the darkness underneath the bridge. She sees the image of hands cupped around a lighter (143)—the same image that was triggered in her memory in Chapter 8 when she saw the lighters in the comic book store. This image is followed by a close-up of Sunny’s frightened face and then by a close-up of Dale’s face as he lifts something out-of-frame to his mouth. Shadows give his face an ominous appearance. Dale and his friends notice Sunny and scowl at her. She tells him that it is dinnertime, and his friends mock him for being called home to dinner. As Dale and Sunny walk home, he pressures her not to tell their parents what he was doing, and she unhappily agrees.