Swing set giveaway

After a difficult day in which Hazel Grace Lancaster learned that her doctors might not allow her to travel to Amsterdam to meet Peter Van Houten, she broke down crying in her backyard. The sky was gray and low, and the sight of her old, waterlogged swing set—built by her father when she was a child—intensified her despair. She sat on the grass, surrounded by overgrown weeds and dandelions, muttering "stupid" over and over until the word lost its meaning. When Augustus Waters called and heard her crying, he insisted on coming over immediately, saying, "I must see this old swing set of tears immediately."

The Swing Set and the Ad

Augustus arrived within twenty minutes, wearing khaki pants and a short-sleeve plaid button-down. He sat down on the ground next to Hazel, grimacing as he landed ungracefully on his prosthetic leg. Looking past her at the abandoned swing set—its two little swings hanging still and sad from a grayed plank of wood—he said, "I see your point. That is one sad goddamned swing set." He put an arm around her shoulder, and she nudged her head into his shoulder. He told her that trying to keep her distance from him would not lessen his affection for her, and that all efforts to save him from her would fail. Once she had recovered, they went inside and sat down on the couch together, the laptop half on his fake knee and half on hers. They loaded a giveaway site called Free No Catch and together wrote an ad. The headline they settled on was "Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home." The ad read: "One swing set, well worn but structurally sound, seeks new home. Make memories with your kid or kids so that someday he or she or they will look into the backyard and feel the ache of sentimentality as desperately as I did this afternoon. It's all fragile and fleeting, dear reader, but with this swing set, your child(ren) will be introduced to the ups and downs of human life gently and safely, and may also learn the most important lesson of all: No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can't go all the way around."

Choosing a New Home

After posting the ad, Hazel and Augustus turned on the television but could not find anything to watch, so Hazel fetched her copy of An Imperial Affliction and Augustus read to her while her mother, making lunch, listened in. When Hazel checked her email an hour later, they had plenty of swing-set suitors to choose from. In the end, they picked a man named Daniel Alvarez, who had included a picture of his three kids playing video games with the subject line "I just want them to go outside." Hazel emailed him back and told him to pick it up at his leisure. Augustus asked if she wanted to go with him to Support Group, but she was too tired from her busy day of having cancer, so she passed. As he stood to leave, he fell back onto the couch and sneaked a kiss onto her cheek. When she protested, he called it "friendly" and then kissed her mother on the cheek as well, demonstrating that the gesture was indeed innocent. Hazel went to bed right after dinner, the BiPAP machine drowning out the world beyond her room. She never saw the swing set again.