Still shaken by the thought of being left behind at the fort, Sal resumes her story the next morning. A week after receiving the first message, Phoebe finds one reading, “Everyone has his own agenda” (58). She discusses the meaning and source of the messages with Sal and Mary Lou, while Ben doodles two moons inside a pair of moccasins. This startles Sal, who’s always pictured the saying in the same way. As the group walks to the drugstore, Ben also catches Sal to prevent her from falling, and Sal nervously demands he let her go. He brings this up on the way back from the store, remarking that Sal doesn’t seem to like being touched and asking about her mother. The exchange troubles Sal: She doesn’t want to talk about her mother, and she’s worried she’s becoming “stiff” like the Winterbottoms (64). Ben also says the girls shouldn’t call the mysterious young man (whom they’d spotted at the store) a “lunatic.”

When Sal and Phoebe return to the latter’s house, Mrs. Cadaver is pulling into her own driveway. As the girls hurry inside, Sal catches a glimpse of Ben helping Mrs. Cadaver unload several objects, including an axe, from her car.