Dellarobia and Preston see a pair of monarchs that appear to be mating or, as Preston calls it, engaged in “family life.” Dellarobia explains to her son that this might be the sign Ovid was hoping for: If the butterflies wake up from their winter slumber and begin mating, they may end up surviving. She finds it awkward to watch monarchs copulating in the presence of her kindergartener, but Preston is fascinated.

Once Preston is off to school, Dellarobia heads back home. Ovid isn’t in the lab, and she debates going in and doing work there anyway. Cub is going to his parents’ house to help move furniture that his mother is donating to the town ministry. Dellarobia offers to go and help. They move boxes and a wardrobe out of the room that was not only Cub’s boyhood bedroom but also the room that Dellarobia and Cub stayed in for the first months of their marriage. The place hasn’t changed at all, and Dellarobia notes that she never really felt like a wife while staying in the room, but “more like a sister” (519). Cub, as usual, isn’t listening to her.

While waiting for additional bodies to move the furniture from the truck to the ministry, Dellarobia offers to take Cub out to dinner at the Dairy Prince.