Chapter 29 Summary: 2009

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens in 2009 with Jet stumbling across an old camera in a box labeled BOOKS. The plan is to sell it, but one thing leads to another, and Jet resumes photography. Nana tempers her enthusiasm, while Kendi offers earnest, slightly goofy praise—including for a photo of Nana’s flour-covered hands kneading dough in morning light.

A few months later, Jet is getting hired for paid work. The old camera gets sold—to fund a new one. A friend from Cowtown Cup helps set up a website. When a well-known company commissions Jet for an annual paper calendar, Jet takes the job, needing nature-themed photos from anywhere in the state. Jet calls Kendi and suggests Palo Duro Canyon, combining the shoot with a trip already planned to celebrate his college graduation.

Leah and Kendi have been on-again-off-again through college. They’re on when the trip is planned, so Leah is invited. Jet likes her. But the night before departure, they’re off again—Kendi texts after midnight that it’s “going to stick this time.”

The first three days of the four-day trip are perfect: cool, sunny, clear skies. They hike at golden hours, and on the second morning they take the Lighthouse Trail, reaching the iconic rock formation at dawn. Jet photographs the iridescent rock, hoping one shot becomes the calendar cover. They see road runners, aoudads, and once come upon four deer staring from five feet away—Jet takes no pictures of them. They crawl through percolation caves and past red-flowing streams. Kendi is reluctant to discuss Leah, and Jet lets it go, wanting nothing to intrude on the trip.

Kendi camps often with his friend Michael, so he brings cooking gear and cooks under juniper trees. Jet tends to his sunburned nose and sore ankle. Jet sleeps hard each night—“the sleep of life.”

On the last night, rain is coming, so they set up Kendi’s tent. In the middle of the night, Jet bolts upright from a nightmare about Mom’s death. Kendi wakes, comforts Jet with calming circles on his back and water. Jet admits the nightmares come every month or two now, down from every couple of days. Then Kendi reveals he has nightmares about the same event—he was there when Mom died. He shares that hours before she died, she was humming while loading forks into the dishwasher. Jet asks what she was humming: Kenny G. Jet laughs, remembering Mom’s guilty pleasure for smooth jazz, and a new thought arrives: maybe she died happy, maybe she was okay without Jet, and Jet can be okay without her. Kendi’s presence on the night of Mom’s death used to feel like a betrayal; now it feels like a gift. Time, Jet reflects, can wash dirt off a memory until it becomes something else entirely. Jet dreams of riding Clydesdales with Mom in the canyon, Mom smiling and insisting she’s right there.

Rain falls through dawn. Kendi is awake early, reading The Name of the Wind. Something is clearly off, and Jet—who knows Kendi well—presses him. Kendi brings up the kids who once called them lovebirds. He admits he had a crush on Jet as a kid. Then the real confession: Leah dumped him because of Jet—she felt nobody could compare to his best friend—and that was the reason every time they broke up. Kendi says he’s in love with Jet.

Jet freezes, feeling only fear. The response is to frame their bond as sibling-like, but Kendi insists it’s romantic love, that he’s lived with unrequited feelings, that he can live with unrequited but not without Jet. Jet asks if he wants to ignore it and stay friends; Kendi says obviously not, but knows Jet doesn’t feel the same. Jet’s answer, quietly, is “I’m so sorry.” Kendi goes out into the rain, then returns to say the rain is letting up and they should hike.

The last hike is intense, all focus on scrambles and footing, Kendi never looking at Jet. They break down camp wordlessly and drive home in strained silence, punctuated by stilted attempts at normalcy—bathroom breaks, Whataburger, traffic, beef jerky, McCain signs, Wes Anderson films. At Nana’s house, Jet says it won’t be the same anymore. Kendi says he doesn’t know. Jet gathers her things and settles on “See you later.” As soon as the door closes, Kendi speeds away.

Key Events

Jet rediscovers photography and lands a paid calendar commission
The Palo Duro trip is planned around Kendi’s graduation and the photo shoot
Leah and Kendi break up the night before departure
Three days of hiking and photography pass without incident
A nightmare about Mom’s death leads to a shared confession of mutual nightmares
The Kenny G memory reframes Jet’s understanding of Mom’s final hours
Kendi confesses he’s in love with Jet; Jet declines
The final hike and drive home unfold in strained silence
Kendi drops Jet off and drives away

Character Development

Jet: Photography returns as a creative and professional renewal. The nightmare exchange and Kenny G memory mark a shift in grief—from guilt and avoidance toward acceptance. The refusal of Kendi’s confession shows Jet prioritizing the friendship’s survival over romantic possibility, even at the cost of immediate pain.
Kendi: The confession is a major vulnerability. He’s historically reluctant to reveal feelings (the chapter notes he’d hide illness at school rather than tell a teacher). Admitting years of unrequited love—and that Leah’s jealousy was the recurring cause of their breakups—is a risk that fails, and he retreats into silence.
Nana: A quiet supporting presence, tempering her praise of Jet’s photos, underscoring her steady, non-intrusive support.
Leah: Off-screen but pivotal; her perception that she couldn’t compare to Jet becomes the catalyst for the confession.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Photography as renewal: The camera’s rediscovery marks a return to identity and purpose; the calendar commission gives Jet professional validation.
Grief and nightmares: Both Jet and Kendi carry the trauma of Mom’s death; the shared nightmare confession deepens their bond even as the romantic confession strains it.
Memory reframing: The Kenny G detail transforms Jet’s understanding of Mom’s final hours—from loss to a possible peace. “Time can wash dirt off a memory” is the chapter’s central idea.
Nature as refuge: Palo Duro provides a space of healing and connection, from the deer encounter to the canyon’s light.
Unrequited love and friendship tested: Kendi’s confession and Jet’s refusal test the friendship’s foundation.
Letting go: Jet’s dream of Mom, and the acceptance that she may have been okay, points toward letting go of guilt.

Why This Chapter Matters

This is a turning point. The grief work of the nightmare scene—and the Kenny G memory—represents Jet’s most significant emotional progress since Mom’s death. But the confession reconfigures the central friendship. The chapter ends with the relationship in question: “It’s not going to be the same anymore, huh?” The answer is unresolved, setting up the novel’s final stretch.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Jet decline Kendi’s confession? Jet’s stated reason is fear of losing Kendi again. The chapter frames the refusal as protective—Jet reads Kendi’s confession as a product of breakup confusion and prioritizes the friendship’s survival over romantic risk. The “siblings” framing is Jet’s attempt to preserve the bond.
How does the Kenny G memory change Jet’s understanding of Mom’s death? Jet had carried guilt and the trauma of the death scene. Learning Mom was humming Kenny G—a guilty pleasure she’d eventually owned—suggests she was at peace in her final hours. This reframes the memory from loss to possible contentment, allowing Jet to consider being okay without her.
What does the deer encounter (where Jet takes no photos) reveal? The deer moment is one of pure presence—no camera, no documentation. It contrasts with the calendar work and suggests Jet’s capacity to simply be in the moment, a form of healing that photography can’t capture.