So B. It

Georgia plans to study psychology and become a “shrink.” She tells Heidi about body language and how liars reveal themselves with a subtle gesture as they say a lie. Heidi and Georgia travel together until New York City, getting on and off the bus as a pair; Georgia reassures Heidi each time Heidi tries unsuccessfully to call Bernie that once workers repair the lines, Bernie will be glad to hear from Heidi. Heidi proves to Georgia that she is curiously lucky by winning ten dollars with two scratch lottery tickets. She buys burgers and fries for them both with the winnings. Georgia says that a boy she is interested in, Frank, thinks she will not make a good psychologist, but Heidi tells Georgia that she will be great at it. Heidi makes a list of things she knows about Georgia in her notebook, then marvels at the fact that she knows far more about Georgia Sweet, whom she just met, than her own mother.

In New York City, Heidi notices a tug on her backpack while waiting for the bus but does not see who it is. Georgia walks Heidi to her next bus and helps her choose a woman to board with, DeeDee Monroe. Once on the bus Heidi goes through the photographs again; “All their faces were familiar by now. Strangers and at the same time not” (142). She imagines her grandmother greeting her when she arrives in Liberty.

Heidi discovers at a stop that her money is gone. She changes buses one last time and makes it to Liberty, New York. Everyone else getting off at that stop has “smiling people” waiting to pick them up; once they and the bus leave, Heidi is alone. This time her collect call at a pay phone goes through; Bernie cries with relief to hear her voice. Heidi wants to be strong but cannot: “I knew that I should tell her that I was fine, and that I had made it to Liberty in one piece, but the moment I heard her voice, I fell apart” ( 147). Heidi cries and Bernie wants to know if someone has hurt her. Heidi tells Bernie that someone took her money leaving her without cab fare, and that arriving in Liberty feels alone and like something has ended instead of begun. Bernie reassures Heidi that she, Bernie, knows exactly where Heidi is and that she will help get money to her. Bernie then hangs up suddenly, saying that Mama is not well and needs her.

Heidi is still upset and worried, but must find shelter with a storm blowing in. At the ABC cab office, she guesses the number of jellybeans in a countertop jar, trying to win the prize of a free ride. Heidi is worried that her luck ran out because she does not sense its presence any longer. Thinking about home, Bernie, and Mama, however, settles her worries; her guess is correct: “I stood there with the big jar of jelly beans in my arms, thinking just because you can’t feel something doesn’t mean it’s not there” (154). In the cab on the way to Hilltop Home, she catches sight of herself in the mirror, barely recognizing her own appearance. 

No one answers the door when Heidi arrives at Hilltop House. She goes in unescorted, seeing a front room, a kitchen, and an office. In the office she considers going through the files to search for Mama’s information. Crossing the room to touch the plants near the window in an alcove, she suddenly realizes that a man is sleeping in the armchair there. He wakes when she apologizes: “Then all of a sudden his face lit up with recognition and he broke into a wide toothy grin” (163). The man looks at Heidi and says soof two times.

A caretaker, Ruby Franklin, comes into the office when she hears the man’s voice. She calls him Elliott and asks who Heidi is. Heidi is so shocked at the man’s use of Mama’s word that she can only say “Am I soof?” Ruby says she hears Elliot use the word many times a day and that it would be nice to know who or what he means. She says that not even Mr. Hill, Elliot’s father, understands the word.

When Mr. Thurman Hill arrives, Heidi introduces herself and says she has questions for him. Ruby determines that Heidi knows the woman named Bernadette who called from Nevada. Mr. Hill and Ruby look at the pictures Heidi brought, and Mr. Hill begins to anger. He tells Heidi that “she” won’t get more money and should not be making trouble for Elliot and him, and that Heidi has no right to come to Hilltop House: “You tell her promises have been made and paid for” (173). Mr. Hill goes to attend to Elliot who is upset in the next room. Heidi, unsure of what to do, stands alone until Ruby comes back. Ruby checks the files but finds no one by the last name of It. Heidi requests to check for herself, but a policeman arrives. Assuming he has come to apprehend her, Heidi bolts and runs out of the home.