Chick’s mother makes him eggs. He finally manages to express his shock and amazement that she is there with him aloud, but she seems not to hear him, instead urging him to eat the nourishing food she has made. She asks him hopefully if he will spend the day with her, and Chick agrees to.

We learn that rather than announcing to their children that they were getting a divorce, Chick’s father simply disappeared, leaving his children to deal with the confusion and guilt brought about by his absence. Though his parents would fight frequently before the divorce, they also had happy moments, and Chick remembers their beauty and charisma: “that’s how I saw my parents. They fought, but they danced” (45). Chick’s mother decides they all need a fresh start with the new school year, and that they should all start new projects. Chick, however, sullenly announces that he just wants to play baseball, with “the first of a million scowling faces” (46).

Chick finds himself becoming accustomed to his mother’s presence: “at some point, maybe when my mother said, ‘Eat,’ I physically surrendered to the idea of being there. I did what my mother told me” (47).