Before her death, Chick’s mother had worked as a beautician for homebound older women, and she has three of these appointments during her day together with Chick, in the narrative’s present. Together, they walk to the first appointment, and Chick’s mother asks him if he is okay. The weather, she says, reminds him of the day he was born. She tells him how she prayed for a child for three years after she was married, and even carved the word ‘PLEASE’ into a tree as a prayer, because “[trees] spend all day looking up at God” (55). By telling him this story, she acknowledges that he is in emotional as well as physical pain, and reminds him how important he is to those who love him. He finds this hard to accept, and thinks longingly about drinking, conscious that he uses alcohol to avoid facing these feelings.

He remembers how, though his mother - “Charming Posey” - was outgoing and well-liked before her divorce, afterward she became somewhat of an outcast. Their family spent holidays alone, a result of their neighbors’ discomfort with Posey as a single woman and mother. His mother makes the best of the situation and tries to portray this as a choice, rather than an unfortunate circumstance.