Theo, Calla, and Bee attend the weekly community gathering, which is a time for planning, celebration, mourning, and all other Pastoral business. Calla is tense, wanting the night to pass quickly and uneventfully. A friend, Birdie, tells Calla that her son, Arwen, inadvertently put an arm across the border, and she is worried about him. Calla comforts her and promises she won’t say anything to the rest of the group.

In the home of Pastoral’s leader, Levi, Bee reflects on their intimate relationship, including the fact that he was with her when she lost her sight. As is their custom, he asks her for insights into the community, which she has a unique ability to overhear. Although she feels guilty, she doesn’t tell him what she knows about Theo. They then have sex.

Afterward, the gathering begins, and Levi tells everyone the story of how the illness began. Bee goes outside, thinking about the missing memory of Travis Wren. She notes that she can “feel the hole where the memories should be, gaping, bottomless” (98), and she is terrified by her sense of the rot seeking a way into their community.