Chap­ter 16 opens with Saint, who is dressed in navy over­alls and a white blouse, walk­ing into the room where her grand­moth­er, Nor­ma, is sit­ting at the table, read­ing The Tri­bune. Nor­ma looks up, and in a con­cerned tone, remarks that Saint appears too thin, to which Saint quick­ly dis­miss­es her wor­ries, stat­ing that she is per­fect­ly fine, despite always hav­ing dirt under her nails. Nor­ma, ever the care­tak­er, sug­gests that Saint wear her wedge san­dals to church, which she reluc­tant­ly agrees to do. As they head to church, Saint can’t help but feel increas­ing­ly dis­tant from the peo­ple around her. Beneath the bright­ly col­ored stained-glass win­dows, she stands, feel­ing emo­tion­al­ly detached from the priest’s ser­mon about for­give­ness and God’s love, espe­cial­ly when that mes­sage clash­es with the inter­nal con­flict she feels.

Dur­ing a prayer for a miss­ing child, the silence in the church grows heav­ier when Ivy Macauley, a local woman, enters alone. Her pres­ence in the church is somber, her eyes heavy with grief. Saint notices the atmos­phere shift but is momen­tar­i­ly dis­tract­ed by Jim­my Wal­ters, a class­mate who attempts to catch her atten­tion, but she pur­pose­ly ignores him, aware of how much he likes to seek her out. Nor­ma, observ­ing the exchange, com­ments on the boy’s pos­si­ble affec­tion, but Saint quick­ly dis­miss­es it, sar­cas­ti­cal­ly com­ment­ing on Jimmy’s obliv­i­ous­ness. As the priest invites every­one to pray, Saint kneels with a deep sense of unease, her hands clasped tight­ly as she hopes for the safe­ty of her miss­ing friend, pray­ing silent­ly for some sign of relief amidst the grow­ing sense of dread.

After the ser­vice, Saint has a con­ver­sa­tion with Misty Mey­er, who shares her thoughts on Mon­ta Clare. Misty acknowl­edges the town’s beau­ty but points out the hid­den dan­gers, such as crime and fear that no one talks about open­ly. Saint, who admires Misty’s calm demeanor, lis­tens to her, but Misty’s admis­sion about being fright­ened of the “pirate kid” sug­gests the fear that has gripped the town. Misty express­es her regret about not going straight to school on a par­tic­u­lar day, indi­cat­ing that she feels respon­si­ble for some­thing that hap­pened, though the details remain vague. Their exchange brings a sense of shared under­stand­ing as both girls nav­i­gate the com­pli­cat­ed world they live in, deal­ing with their own fears and a real­i­ty far dif­fer­ent from their child­hood ide­al­iza­tion.

As their con­ver­sa­tion shifts, the two girls talk about the com­plex pres­sures of liv­ing in a small town. Saint brings up her grandmother’s view that cer­tain peo­ple, like a local bus dri­ver, make oth­ers work hard­er, which feels like a heavy truth to both of them. Misty, known for her wit, humor­ous­ly sug­gests that the bus driver’s health risks, includ­ing his smok­ing habit, could be anoth­er con­tribut­ing fac­tor to the stress in their lives. The con­ver­sa­tion grows awk­ward, yet it’s a thought­ful exchange about the bur­dens they bear and the chal­lenge of express­ing them­selves in a world that pres­sures them to be some­thing they’re not. They each face their own set of expec­ta­tions placed on them by the peo­ple around them, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to sim­ply be them­selves in the midst of a soci­ety that val­ues con­for­mi­ty.

As they con­tin­ue to chat, Misty shares more about the soci­etal expec­ta­tions that weigh heav­i­ly on her, espe­cial­ly the unspo­ken rules about how girls should behave around boys. Saint lis­tens atten­tive­ly, rec­og­niz­ing the com­plex­i­ties of those expec­ta­tions and the ways in which they shape both her and Misty’s actions. There’s a pal­pa­ble shift in their con­ver­sa­tion, as Misty reveals her strug­gle to nav­i­gate these pres­sures, and Saint con­tem­plates how to deal with the grow­ing pains of ado­les­cence. But before they can con­tin­ue, Misty makes an unex­pect­ed revelation—she saw Dr. Tooms, a fig­ure tied to the unset­tling mys­ter­ies in their town. This shock­ing admis­sion leads to more ques­tions than answers, deep­en­ing the sense of fear and unease that both girls have been try­ing to shake. The chap­ter clos­es on this rev­e­la­tion, leav­ing Saint and Misty in a state of height­ened aware­ness, uncer­tain of what lies ahead.