The answer comes in the third chapter, “The Afterlife.” Brent had been driving drunk when he caused the car accident that killed Lea Zamora. Amazingly enough, he wasn’t sentenced to jail time or a stint in a detention center. Instead, during a mediation session with Lea’s mother, Brent was asked by Mrs. Zamora to atone for his crime by building four versions of Lea’s favorite wooden toy, a whirligig. Such devices have arms that whirl when the wind blows. She asked him to build them in tribute to Lea and to install them in the four corners of the country: Washington, California, Florida, and Maine. She provided a Greyhound bus ticket good for forty-five days and a camera to take photos of each whirligig. Brent’s parents thought this was a ridiculous request. But Brent warmed to it and accepted the challenge. It would give him time away from the awful memories hanging around back home in Chicago. The trip would give him time to think and to figure out what direction his life should take from this point forward.
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