In the chap­ter titled “Joe,” the nar­ra­tive opens with Joe’s moth­er, who dis­miss­es the search for Joe’s miss­ing sis­ter, Ruthie, urg­ing them to accept she’s gone. Despite her sad­ness, she tries to find solace in the belief that Ruthie is out there liv­ing her life. Joe, now the youngest child since Ruthie went miss­ing, feels the weight of this respon­si­bil­i­ty, sup­port­ing his moth­er through her grief by sim­ply being present and atten­tive.

The family’s cir­cum­stances have changed sig­nif­i­cant­ly, with few­er berry pick­ers and a dimin­ish­ing com­mu­ni­ty at their camp. Joe reflects on the sum­mer he turned fif­teen, nos­tal­gic for the joy­ous moments over­shad­owed by Ruthie’s dis­ap­pear­ance. He recalls the antic­i­pa­tion for a local car­ni­val, an escape from the envelop­ing sad­ness, and the chance to inter­act with a girl named Susan.

While pick­ing berries, excite­ment builds in Joe as the carnival’s trucks rum­ble past, indi­cat­ing the approach­ing fes­tiv­i­ties. How­ev­er, his joy is short-lived as he wit­ness­es a vio­lent alter­ca­tion involv­ing his broth­er, Char­lie, and a local bul­ly, Archie John­son. The vio­lence unfolds quick­ly; despite Joe’s pleas for Char­lie to back down, Archie attacks him, lead­ing to a bru­tal con­fronta­tion where Char­lie defends the drunk­en Frankie, who is ini­tial­ly the tar­get of Archie’s rage.

As the sit­u­a­tion esca­lates, Joe flees to find help from his sib­lings, the glit­ter of the car­ni­val con­trast­ing sharply with the bru­tal­i­ty hap­pen­ing just behind the tents. Char­lie, injured severe­ly, needs assis­tance, but by the time Joe and Ben arrive, it’s too late. The episode show­cas­es the frag­ile nature of their famil­ial bonds in the face of vio­lence and loss.

Joe grap­ples with immense guilt and anger when, ulti­mate­ly, Char­lie dies from the injuries sus­tained in the attack. The chap­ter con­cludes with the fam­i­ly’s painful depar­ture from Maine, bur­dened by grief and unre­solved issues from the night’s event. The mother’s anguish and Joe’s regret ampli­fy the chap­ter’s themes of loss, the inescapa­bil­i­ty of vio­lence, and the deep emo­tion­al scars that linger long after the phys­i­cal ones heal.