Chap­ter XI begins with Lester Swan, the bus dri­ver, enjoy­ing a live­ly con­ver­sa­tion with his pas­sen­gers. He eager­ly encour­ages every­one to sit near the front of the bus, cre­at­ing a sense of cama­raderie among the group, though Bob­bi and Will Junior hes­i­tate as they sit beside him, clear­ly unsure and uncom­fort­able. Mean­while, Mibs and Fish, both on edge due to their father’s wors­en­ing health, sit qui­et­ly across from them, their anx­i­ety pal­pa­ble. The ten­sion in the air is thick, as their jour­ney to Sali­na grows more urgent with each pass­ing minute. While Lester dri­ves, he casu­al­ly talks about the quirks of the bus, includ­ing a past inci­dent when the vehi­cle unex­pect­ed­ly broke down. His non­cha­lant sto­ry­telling pro­vides a stark con­trast to the anx­ious atmos­phere inside the bus. Fish, his patience run­ning thin, inter­rupts and urgent­ly asks how long it will take to reach Sali­na. This ques­tion cuts through the light-heart­ed­ness, mak­ing every­one in the bus real­ize just how impor­tant and time-sen­si­tive their mis­sion is.

Lester glances at his watch, his expres­sion shift­ing to one of mild con­cern as he rec­og­nizes that he’s run­ning behind sched­ule. He still has to make a stop in Bee before con­tin­u­ing on to Wymore and Man­hat­tan to deliv­er mon­ey to a friend. Despite the group’s grow­ing frus­tra­tion and their urgent need to reach Sali­na, Lester stands firm, unwill­ing to pri­or­i­tize their request over his own pro­fes­sion­al com­mit­ments. He insists that he can­not afford to risk his job, a real­i­ty that weighs heav­i­ly on Mibs, who begins to feel guilty for ask­ing Lester for a favor that might jeop­ar­dize his liveli­hood. Her inter­nal con­flict high­lights the com­plex­i­ties of the sit­u­a­tion: their per­son­al emer­gen­cies clash with the larg­er, often incon­ve­nient demands of every­day life. This moment serves as a reminder that some­times, the things we need most aren’t eas­i­ly with­in reach, and the respon­si­bil­i­ty of oth­ers can’t always align with our own des­per­a­tion.

As the bus rolls into the small town of Bee, Lester’s frus­tra­tion grows when he finds that the church, which is the only build­ing of inter­est in town, is locked and dark. The town offers no imme­di­ate solace, only a reminder of the pas­sage of time and the many unan­swered ques­tions that linger in their lives. Mibs, notic­ing Lester’s agi­ta­tion, begins to reflect on her own life and the mem­o­ries she holds of her moth­er. Her moth­er had always taught her that per­fec­tion is an illu­sion and that the true beau­ty of life lies in its imper­fec­tions. These lessons were passed down dur­ing qui­et moments spent togeth­er in the kitchen, where they’d share warmth and wis­dom while cook­ing. For Mibs, these mem­o­ries of her moth­er pro­vide com­fort amidst the chaos of the present, rein­forc­ing the idea that, like every­one else, the Beau­mont fam­i­ly expe­ri­ences both joy and sor­row. These reflec­tions offer her a brief respite from the pres­sure of the jour­ney and help her real­ize that, despite the dif­fi­cul­ties they face, they are not alone in their strug­gles.

As Mibs steps out­side to escape the com­plaints and grow­ing ten­sion inside the bus, she seeks soli­tude. The fresh air offers a moment of clar­i­ty, and she finds her­self drawn to an old, aban­doned house with a porch that seems to invite her to sit and reflect. Alone, she begins to remem­ber the dream her father once had of build­ing a porch swing for their fam­i­ly home—a sym­bol of com­fort, togeth­er­ness, and the sim­pler moments in life. As she sits on the porch, her mind drifts back to these peace­ful, hope­ful times before the com­plex­i­ties of their cur­rent sit­u­a­tion took hold. Will Junior, ever curi­ous and per­sis­tent, even­tu­al­ly finds her and strikes up a con­ver­sa­tion. Mibs, ever secre­tive, tries to deflect his ques­tions but, in the end, opens up just enough to share a fleet­ing, light-heart­ed moment with him. This brief exchange pro­vides her with a small amount of emo­tion­al relief, remind­ing her that, despite the whirl­wind of events, there are still pock­ets of con­nec­tion to be found.

The con­ver­sa­tion takes an unex­pect­ed turn when Will Junior presents Mibs with a birth­day gift—a pen set she hadn’t yet opened. As she exam­ines the gift, she begins to draw a sun on his hand, a sim­ple, inno­cent ges­ture. To her aston­ish­ment, the sun sketch comes to life, glow­ing and shift­ing in ways she could not have antic­i­pat­ed. This moment marks the begin­ning of Mibs’s jour­ney into the dis­cov­ery of her abil­i­ties, a rev­e­la­tion that sur­pris­es and deeply intrigues her. The chap­ter ends with the real­iza­tion that Mibs’s pow­ers are not just a fig­ment of her imag­i­na­tion but a tan­gi­ble force that is start­ing to take shape. This dis­cov­ery sym­bol­izes a turn­ing point for Mibs, as she begins to see that her life is chang­ing in ways she can­not ful­ly under­stand yet.

The chap­ter is a rich blend of child­hood inno­cence, fam­i­ly bonds, and the slow unveil­ing of Mibs’s unique pow­ers. Through the chal­lenges and the chaos of their jour­ney, Mibs begins to con­front the real­i­ty of her abil­i­ties and the weight they might car­ry in the future. At the same time, the urgency of the jour­ney to Sali­na remains ever-present, remind­ing Mibs that time is slip­ping away. This con­stant push-pull between per­son­al growth and urgent exter­nal demands mir­rors the ten­sion of ado­les­cence, when the desire to grow and under­stand one­self is often in con­flict with the pres­sures and respon­si­bil­i­ties of the world around them. The chap­ter encap­su­lates the com­plex nature of fam­i­ly life, where joy and sor­row inter­twine, and the real­iza­tion that no one is immune to both the light and dark sides of exis­tence. As Mibs embarks on this emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal jour­ney, she begins to under­stand that her family’s strug­gles are part of the larg­er human expe­ri­ence, one filled with both pro­found chal­lenges and unex­pect­ed moments of won­der.