In the chap­ter “Wyn­ton,” we find Wyn­ton wan­der­ing alone through the dark night, haunt­ed by his past. He no longer has a home, dreams, or friends, and after endur­ing a bru­tal assault by a man known as Bri­an Fuck­mutt, he grap­ples with his sense of iden­ti­ty and pur­pose. We catch a glimpse of his emo­tion­al state, recall­ing his father, Theo Fall, who used to dis­cuss jazz music with him. As he bat­tles through a haze of alco­hol and pain, he los­es him­self to mem­o­ries and visions of his broth­er Miles, who he imag­ines is the one inflict­ing the pain.

In his ine­bri­at­ed state, Wyn­ton longs to express him­self through music, attempt­ing to play his vio­lin, but instead finds him­self over­whelmed by tears, recall­ing his strug­gle in the mid­dle school orches­tra. He feels a con­flict between the good and the bad with­in him, describ­ing a “poi­son-per­son” that trou­bles his mind. Dis­ori­ent­ed, he seeks solace but is sud­den­ly inter­rupt­ed by a mys­te­ri­ous shadow—a girl with vibrant, curly hair who engages him with her deep voice.

As she assists him, Wyn­ton is smit­ten and believes he is in the pres­ence of an angel sent by Dizzy, a mutu­al acquain­tance. The girl, Cas­sidy, encour­ages him to leave the road, promis­ing to take him home and some­what cap­ti­vat­ing him with her charm. Wyn­ton con­fess­es his love for her, feel­ing an emo­tion­al awak­en­ing as they rem­i­nisce and laugh togeth­er.

The night­time sur­round­ings trans­form, filled with music and beau­ty, and Wyn­ton feels alive and hope­ful for the first time. Cas­sidy reveals she has returned for him, ignit­ing a young roman­tic ide­al in Wyn­ton that push­es away his pre­vi­ous despair. They share a moment of con­nec­tion and hap­pi­ness, danc­ing togeth­er as if time stands still.

How­ev­er, this moment is trag­i­cal­ly cut short when a car appears sud­den­ly, lead­ing to a cat­a­stroph­ic moment where Cas­sidy calls out, caus­ing Wyn­ton to plunge into dark­ness. This chap­ter encap­su­lates Wynton’s inter­nal strug­gles, the yearn­ing for love and con­nec­tion, and the naive hope that changes can arise from trau­ma, even as it teeters dan­ger­ous­ly on the edge of despair.