Beautiful Boy: Chapter 25 Summary & Analysis

David calls Z., who explains further: Nic dropped her off at the market at 5:45 a.m. and took her car to Vicki’s. He was going to break in and steal Vicki’s computer and come back, but he disappeared for four hours. David calls Vicki, who finds Nic in the garage, piling things into shopping bags. He’s tweaking, and he managed to lock himself inside somehow. Vicki tells Nic that he has a choice: she will call the police, or he can go back to rehab.

David makes more calls to rehab centers. He speaks to someone at Hazelden’s four-month program in Oregon. If Nic is willing, it is likely that he can go there. David calls Nic, telling him about the bed in Hazelden, but Nic says that he can recover alone. With pressing from both David and Z., Nic relents and agrees to go. He says that he thought he could stay sober because he wanted to, admitting, “I guess this is what it means to be an addict.”

On Monday, Nic speaks to a counselor at Hazelden and says that he is going to Oregon. David books a flight and calls Hazelden to be sure that someone will pick Nic up—but the counselor at Hazelden says that Nic was not approved for admission. David is confounded, but the supervisor is adamant that he cannot come. David immediately makes arrangements for Nic to detox at a hospital instead.

Nic goes to the hospital, and David checks in with the nurses at the ward. One says that she doesn’t think Nic’s body could have survived another month, given the amount of drugs he was taking. After a few days, David speaks to Nic, who sounds extremely depressed. He thanks David for getting him to the hospital, cries, and tells David that he feels like his life has been “stolen.” David finds a program in Santa Fe for Nic to go to, and Vicki drives him to the airport.

David and Karen take Jasper and Daisy to a family therapist, whom David and Karen met with earlier. The therapist talks to the kids reassuringly, telling them that David and Karen told him what’s happening with Nic, and that it’s very scary to have a brother addicted to drugs. He says it’s normal to feel confused and to feel like they both love Nic and might also be afraid of him. The more the therapist and the kids talk, the more open they get.

Karen talks about how whenever something is missing, she panics that Nic might have broken in again. The therapist explains how triggers can return people to a state of panic, like the newspapers they found. David nods, saying that he thinks this happens when the phone rings. He says that he is always worried there will be news of another crisis. The therapist suggests shutting off his ringer for periods of time and establishing times when David and Nic can speak on the phone so that he doesn’t constantly worry about Nic calling. Afterward, everyone is relieved to have been able to talk with the therapist.

Three weeks after Nic enters rehab, he is still in acute physical and mental pain—once, he is even rushed to a hospital. But Nic says that he cannot believe he relapsed, feeling incredibly guilty. David is glad that Nic is on a better path, but he’s wary of being hopeful. Another month passes, and David takes a trip to visit Nic in Santa Fe. He wonders why he is there, thinking about how everything he has done over the years has helped so little. And yet, he still misses his son.

David drives through the town and arrives at the rehab center. He sees Nic, and they hug. Vicki arrives at the center as well. Even now, David still feels guilty over their divorce. Though they have talked on the phone and grown closer in the last few years, they have not been in the same room for more than a few minutes in the past 20 years.

David, Vicki, and Nic join a group session. David is upset, thinking how many times he has done this before. They fill out a questionnaire and then move on to art therapy. David is again furious, thinking that he has been through too much to be finger painting. Still, they start to draw. David, Vicki, and Nic are given a piece of paper that is divided into three.

David starts to draw with chalk, merely pushing it around on the page. Vicki uses watercolors, painting a pretty beach scene. Nic draws a heart with muscles, tissue, and ventricles. Vicki smears her scene with swashes of black over the sky. Nic writes “I am sorry” over and over again. David continues to draw branches and circles randomly. He soon realizes that it is the opening of his brain.

Families take turns talking and sharing their drawings. Nic says that it’s amazing that Vicki is there and that the work he’s doing at the program is about trying to heal, not trying to make excuses or blame others. David starts to cry, and Nic puts his hand on David’s shoulder. Later that night, David wonders if it’s possible to get beyond blaming.

The next day, David drives to the center for another group therapy session. It is a relief to talk about his problems. On the final session of the last day, they are instructed to think about the future and the steps they can take to get better. Nic’s small steps forward include attending AA and repairing his relationships with Karen, Jasper, and Daisy. David thinks that it will take a miracle for Nic’s recovery to succeed, but he also thinks that it is a miracle that he and Vicki are there together to support Nic.

David returns home, feeling completely raw and exposed. He watches Jasper play lacrosse, his phone off in his pocket. He reminds himself that his addiction to Nic’s addiction did not serve Nic or anyone around David; now, David is in his own program to recover through small steps like this and through therapy.

After practice, David and Jasper go to a sporting goods store, and a piece of paper falls out of Jasper’s wallet when he retrieves a gift card: it’s Nic’s letter to him. At home, when the kids are asleep, David tries to understand what he is feeling: a combination of hurt and happiness about the past and a combination of anxiety and optimism for the future. Or, as he thinks, “everything.”