Ralph announces his intention to find an aspirin for Keith. His family is horrified because Ralph’s father died from aspirin poisoning. Ralph says he’ll figure out a way to transport it without putting one in his mouth. His mom wants Uncle Lester to do it instead, but Lester balks. Ralph insists he’s old enough to get the job done. He sneaks out under Room 215’s door and visits the other rooms, one at a time. He avoids 211 because of the little terrier but continues searching the floors of the other rooms for a pill.

Ralph begins to doubt that he will find an aspirin, but he is determined not to lose hope. He decides that he will be brave and even search the ground floor if necessary. In the last room on the hall, a young woman guest sees Ralph and traps him inside a drinking glass. She alerts her roommate, a fellow teacher, and they talk about bringing Ralph back with them to their school in Kansas as a pet for their students. Scared of his “tiny prison” yet determined, he yells through the glass that they must let him go.