Looking for Alaska: 33. Two Days After Summary & Analysis

Miles calls his parents and tells them about the car crash. They pity Alaska’s parents and Miles realizes that only her dad is left. Miles gets off the phone and can’t stop thinking about Alaska’s dead tongue and dead mouth. He is afraid that he has lost something he needs and will never be able to find it again. He thinks about being without Alaska as like being blind.

The Colonel tells Miles that he spent the night memorizing the capitals of every country in the world. They decide to smoke in their bathroom but they can’t make the cigarette light. The Colonel throws the cigarette and screams about how impulsive and irresponsible Alaska was. Miles tells him that it’s their fault that she’s dead, and the Colonel agrees, but also says that they shouldn’t have had to stop her. She was like a child who needed constant supervision. The Colonel grabs his almanac and leaves to go on a walk.

Miles wonders if an instantaneous death feels instantaneous to the person dying. Did Alaska think about him before she died? Miles guesses that she was probably driving up to Nashville to see Jake. He wonders if he meant anything to Alaska, but he reassures himself that “To be continued?” must mean that he did.

Lara comes to see Miles but he doesn’t know how to talk to her, because he feels like he’s in “a love triangle with one dead side.” Lara tries to comfort him again later in the day, but he turns and walks away. That night Miles has horrible dreams about Alaska’s mouth oozing with dead flesh and formaldehyde. When he wakes up, the Colonel still hasn’t come back from his walk.