Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.: Chapter 22 Summary & Analysis

Margaret stays in her room in the morning. She starts to try to talk to God, but then remembers she’s not talking to him anymore. She figures that if he wants to “strike [her] down,” he can. But by afternoon, she’s bored and asks Mom to let her go to a movie with Janie. Margaret meets Janie at a drugstore near the theater. They’re early, so they go into the drugstore to check out the pad display. After a few minutes, Margaret suggests they buy some. She’s wanted to do this for a while but has been too afraid. Today she feels brave—God might be mad at her, but also, nothing happened when she crossed the street against the light.

Janie is confused and is afraid her mother might be upset, but Margaret suggests they just don’t tell. This decided, they choose boxes of Teenage Softies and Margaret grabs a comb so it looks like she’s actually shopping. But when the girls see that there’s a boy at the cash register, Janie insists she can’t do it. As Janie is putting her box back, a saleslady asks if the girls need help. Margaret tells the lady they’d like to buy the pads, but the lady tells them to go buy them from the boy at the counter. Janie looks ready to cry, so Margaret picks up their boxes and dumps them in front of the boy. He says nothing as he takes her money and wraps the boxes up in two separate bags. Margaret is shocked; it’s like he sells pads every day.

Mom asks about Margaret’s package when Margaret gets home, but Margaret says it’s school supplies. Margaret takes the bag to her room and stares at the box, hoping God is watching. She takes out a pad, stares at it, and goes to her closet. In her closet, she puts the pad in her underwear to see what it feels like. She likes the feeling and considers sleeping with the pad, but she decides it’s too risky—if there’s a fire, someone might find out. Margaret hides the pads in her desk drawer.

In the morning, Grandmother and Grandfather share that they’re leaving for New York. Mom is aghast; they said they were coming for a week. Grandfather explains that they’ve decided to spend the rest of the week in the city. Margaret can see Dad smiling behind his newspaper, but she’s angry that her grandparents aren’t even staying when they ruined her trip to Florida. When Mom returns from dropping her parents at the bus station, Dad suggests that they probably always intended to go to New York but stopped in because “it was convenient.” Margaret points out that they ruined her trip, but nobody acknowledges her.