Chick’s wife calls him to tell him that Maria found her grandmother just after she had the heart attack, and asks him to come home right away. He rents a car and drives through the night to return to Pepperville Beach, getting drunk along the way. When he arrives home, he realizes he never told his father that his mother had died: “I sensed, deep down, that I would never see him again” (128).

Chick finds himself with his mother in a town he has never seen. The sun has set. Chick and his mother exchange a few regretful words about how they wish things had gone differently in the past, and how they both wish they had spent more time together. When his mother asks him if she was a good mother, Chick is suddenly ripped away once again from the scene before he can answer, and he again hears the policeman’s voice and sees the bright light. When he returns to the town, he finds himself several blocks behind his mother, but when he reaches toward her he is back again at her side, as if nothing has happened.