On the morn­ing of her thir­teenth birth­day, the nar­ra­tor wakes up ear­ly, filled with antic­i­pa­tion but finds noth­ing mag­i­cal hap­pen­ing just yet. Dis­ap­point­ed that she can’t per­form incred­i­ble feats, she ven­tures out of bed, care­ful not to dis­turb her younger sis­ter, Gyp­sy, who loves the com­fort of her stuffed ani­mals. Once in the kitchen, the girl pre­pares a bowl of cere­al and sits qui­et­ly on the sofa, where she sud­den­ly hears a strange thump­ing noise. Inves­ti­gat­ing, she dis­cov­ers that Sam­son’s tur­tle, pre­vi­ous­ly thought dead, is actu­al­ly wak­ing up from hiber­na­tion. This pecu­liar moment brings up unset­tling feel­ings for her, empha­siz­ing the urgency she feels about the day’s sig­nif­i­cance.

Lat­er, the fam­i­ly pre­pares to head to the church in Hebron for the planned par­ty. The nar­ra­tor, clad in a spe­cial dress select­ed by her father, recalls the sweet mem­o­ry of receiv­ing the dress and the bit­ter­sweet real­i­ty of her father’s absence fol­low­ing her grandmother’s death. As they trav­el, she wor­ries about her father, who remains unre­spon­sive in the hos­pi­tal. Despite hav­ing no super­nat­ur­al abil­i­ties like her broth­ers, she believes her unique gift lies in her capac­i­ty to awak­en things, inspired by the turtle’s emer­gence.

Upon arriv­ing at the church, the nar­ra­tor is shocked to find the par­ty in full swing, exceed­ing her expec­ta­tions of a sim­ple gath­er­ing. How­ev­er, anx­i­ety builds when her broth­er, Fish, warns her about the risks of using her abil­i­ty in a crowd­ed place. Defi­ant­ly, she express­es con­fi­dence that she can indeed help her father with her unique tal­ent. Just as she is about to explain, she is inter­rupt­ed by Will Junior, who dis­tracts her, lead­ing her into the chaot­ic birth­day cel­e­bra­tion filled with life and noise, and away from her con­tem­pla­tions regard­ing her father and her new­ly real­ized poten­tial .