A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Zoe decides that she is going to practice for four hours a day instead of quitting. She envisions herself being celebrated and interviewed, and her mom driving around listening to her on the radio.

Every day, Zoe follows a strict routine of eating, going to school, and practicing her Neil Diamond song.

Wheeler and Zoe’s dad come up with a new treat called a maple tart and serve it at dinner. Zoe’s mom is joining the family for once and comments on the deliciousness of the tart. Wheeler talks about selling baked goods and having a food truck they can drive all over town. Zoe thinks about it and realizes that neither Wheeler nor her dad would be able to do such a thing.

Zoe brings eclairs to school for the boys, and she notices that Wheeler doesn’t want the others to know that he is baking with Zoe’s dad every day after school. Zoe also notices that one of the boys, Colton, looks like he put effort into his appearance today. The boys talk about burps and farts, and Zoe tells the others about how termites produce more methane than cows. She doesn’t want to admit that her dad learned that staying at home all day. After lunch, Colton picks up Zoe’s empty cookie box and throws it out for her.

Zoe overhears Wheeler and her dad talking about something she can’t quite figure out, then the subject changes to Colton, who Wheeler observes has a crush on Zoe. Zoe doesn’t mind the idea of someone liking her that way, but her mind is suddenly consumed by the thought, and her stomach twists into knots. When Mabelline rings the doorbell, here for the final lesson before the competition, Zoe hardly recalled that she was coming.

Zoe’s lesson is the best she ever had, and she plays every note perfectly. Mabelline is impressed and looks forward to the competition. Zoe wonders if it was the thought of Colton that helped her play so well.

Zoe hears a rumor from Emma that Colton likes her, and Emma offers to tell Colton that Zoe’s birthday is tomorrow. She invites Zoe to sit at her lunch table because her other friend is sick today, and Zoe politely declines, preferring now to sit with the boys.

Wheeler keeps calling Colton Zoe’s “boyfriend,” saying it every time he has the chance and with an emphasis on “boy.” At the end of the day, Zoe and Wheeler take the bus home together as usual, but Wheeler doesn’t come to Zoe’s house. He goes home instead.

Wheeler doesn’t show up to school on Zoe’s birthday, and she wonders where he is. In class, Emma asks Zoe to be partners for an upcoming spelling contest, and Zoe agrees because she is too nervous to partner up with Colton.

Emma and Zoe pair up for a spelling assignment and practice their spelling at lunch together. Colton approaches them awkwardly, and Emma says hello first, looking up at him and batting her eyelashes. Zoe tries to imitate Emma without looking exactly like her and starts tilting her head in all directions, which causes Colton to ask her if her neck is okay. He hands Zoe a birthday card. Emma is eager to see what it says, but Zoe decides she doesn’t trust Emma enough to share it with her.

Zoe sits in the living room practicing “Forever in Blue Jeans” over and over as her dad and Wheeler bake her a three-level birthday cake.

Zoe’s songbooks don’t have lyrics, so for “Forever in Blue Jeans,” she makes up her own. Zoe sings about herself, her organ, and her dad and Wheeler making her a cake. She pushes on the pedals and creates lyrics about playing Carnegie Hall in blue jeans and winning the competition on the weekend.

When Zoe is called in to see her birthday cake, she is amazed to find a three-tiered masterpiece with flowers, vines, a pond, and trees, though the tiers are made of toilet paper rolls. On top of the cake is a grand piano that Wheeler made himself. He notes that the legs are crooked, but Zoe calls it “a crooked kind of perfect” (117). Unfortunately, Zoe’s dad then announces that her mother has to work all weekend and won’t be home for cake or the competition.

Zoe’s dad tries to convince her that she doesn’t need the competition and they can host their own at home. He tells Zoe that everyone she cares about already knows she’s talented, and she doesn’t need the pressure of competing.

Opposingly, Zoe does want to feel the pressure of competing and to prove to other people that she has talent.

Zoe pushes her chair into the table forcefully, making the cake wobble. She thinks about how frustrating it is to have a father that doesn’t want to go out into the world and can’t stand being around people he doesn’t know. She thinks about how all of the classes he takes will never do any good because he never actually uses them in the real world. Zoe wants to be heard and seen, and she asks her father what the point of learning the organ is if nobody will ever hear her play.

Zoe is in her room listening to music when Wheeler comes in with some cake to cheer her up. He tells Zoe that her dad is planning to take her to the competition, but Zoe doesn’t think he can. She knows her dad usually gets too overwhelmed and ends up lost and coming home instead. She then hears her dad rehearsing the directions out loud to himself, over and over.

Wheeler sits with Zoe’s dad and goes through all the possible worst-case scenarios with him. Zoe’s dad imagines bad weather, flat tires, and car accidents, but Wheeler has his cell phone programmed to speed dial a tow truck, the weather service, and the police. He even programs his own number into Zoe’s dad’s phone, so he can call Wheeler if he forgets one of the other speed dial numbers.

Zoe’s dad hauls a massive suitcase up the stairs, even though it’s only a one-night hotel stay. Zoe complains that her mother won’t be there to see her play and wasn’t there for her birthday either. Wheeler admits that his mother has missed all of his birthdays except the day he was born.

Zoe’s mom comes home late, and Zoe expects her to come into her bedroom with a gift and apologize for missing her birthday. Instead, Zoe’s mom goes right to bed. Feeling forgotten, Zoe suddenly remembers Colton’s card and hopes that it contains something nice that he wrote. She opens it and finds a hippo wearing clogs with a short, silly poem and Colton’s signature, but nothing more.

Zoe has four dreams about the performance. In the first, everything goes perfectly, and she’s wearing a tiara. In the second, she still has the tiara, but it falls over her eyes, and she starts making mistakes. Colton appears and sings the words from the card he got her. In the third dream, Zoe has her tiara, but her mother is one of the judges, and Emma keeps talking to the judges and interrupting the performance. In the last dream, Zoe’s playing is full of mistakes, and her mother is the sole judge, who keeps track of every error. Vladimir Horowitz is in the audience and answers his cell phone, which happens to be a call for Zoe.

Zoe remembers a time her mother played a CD of Vladimir Horowitz’s comeback performance after 12 years of retirement. During the performance, he made several mistakes, but Zoe’s mom explained that those mistakes were not the point. Vladimir’s music was about art and life, which is imperfect. She told Zoe that mistakes don’t matter when people celebrate the art.