In the third morn­ing on the sea­wall, Sol was trou­bled as she climbed on deck for break­fast. Notic­ing her unsta­ble demeanor and shiny eyes, it felt as if a sec­ond child lurked behind her gaze. To stave off the haunt­ing pres­ence of this “wait­ing child,” the nar­ra­tor filled her plate with food, but she bare­ly touched it. An offi­cial ves­sel arrived, prompt­ing a con­ver­sa­tion about leav­ing the con­fines of their cur­rent loca­tion to search for a man named Griff. Despite Sol’s ini­tial agree­ment, her demeanor changed as she described Griff, stat­ing he was a machine mechan­ic, ven­dor, and part-time actor. Her vague details raised sus­pi­cions, lead­ing the nar­ra­tor to ques­tion if Griff was a mere fab­ri­ca­tion to escape the grip of Richard.

As they sailed along the coast, Sol insist­ed Griff was near a town called Ghent. How­ev­er, upon reach­ing the sup­posed loca­tion, they found no town, just rem­nants like brick chim­neys and an aban­doned break­wa­ter. Their jour­ney con­tin­ued to Baglow and Red­field, but each time, they encoun­tered noth­ing but emp­ty promis­es regard­ing Griff’s exis­tence. The nar­ra­tor rec­og­nized that Sol had like­ly invent­ed this ide­al pro­tec­tor out of lone­li­ness.

Days passed peace­ful­ly on the water. They shared evenings catch­ing fish and read­ing under the stars, yet Sol caught pecu­liar, unhealthy fish. Approach­ing Port Min­er­al, the nar­ra­tor con­tem­plat­ed Sol’s future and hoped to find safe­ty among neigh­bors who were calm, unlike the chaos sur­round­ing them. Arriv­ing at the har­bor, the nar­ra­tor went ashore despite Sol’s reluc­tance. An unevent­ful recon­nais­sance led him back to find Sol fish­ing again. Just then, a famil­iar voice star­tled them—it was Griff, hold­ing an overnight bag and appear­ing both sur­prised and relieved.

The meet­ing was bit­ter­sweet; Sol’s face reflect­ed mixed emo­tions of joy and res­ig­na­tion as she approached him. Griff, who seemed to have an aura of relief upon see­ing her, shared his own strug­gles, imply­ing he was free from his pre­vi­ous life. Their reunion hint­ed at deep­er com­plex­i­ties. Sol asked Griff to join them on their jour­ney to Cana­da, believ­ing it was the start of some­thing new. Although Grif­f’s back­ground raised cau­tion, the nar­ra­tor felt com­pelled to extend kind­ness.

As they cast off towards Jolie, the sun warmed their spir­its, now enriched with a new dynam­ic on board, estab­lish­ing the uncer­tain but hope­ful jour­ney ahead.