After struggling to wake Gram up, Gramps drives to the Coeur d’Alene hospital, where he learns she’s had a stroke. While Gramps stays with Gram, Sal waits outside the hospital, wondering whether Gram would have gotten sick if they hadn’t gone on the trip. She realizes, however, that life is unpredictable, and that it would be counterproductive to avoid things that are enjoyable or meaningful just because something might go wrong.

Sometime after midnight, Gramps hands Sal the keys to the car—ostensibly so she can fetch anything she needs from it, but really so she can drive the rest of the way to Lewiston herself. Although reluctant to leave Gram, Sal says goodbye and presses on. Four hours later, Sal reaches Lewiston Hill, where there are several steep switchbacks. Despite her terror, Sal drives on until she reaches an overlook, then parks and gets out. Another car pulls up, and the man inside—a local—comments on the road’s dangerousness before pointing down the hillside to “something shiny and metallic reflecting the moonlight” (257): A bus skidded off the hill a year ago, and only one person on board survived.