In this chap­ter, the nar­ra­tor finds them­selves in Thun­der Bay, expe­ri­enc­ing a moment of hunger that dri­ves them toward a bustling mar­ket set against a scenic lake. Upon arrival, they attempt to pur­chase grilled chick­en with U.S. cur­ren­cy, only to be remind­ed that they are in Cana­da, where the cur­ren­cy exchange is nec­es­sary. The nar­ra­tor fran­ti­cal­ly seeks a solu­tion, recall­ing that they have an ampli­fi­er they could pawn to acquire Cana­di­an mon­ey for food.

At the pawn­shop, they nego­ti­ate for the val­ue of their ampli­fi­er, encoun­ter­ing a skep­ti­cal bro­ker. How­ev­er, in a twist of luck, the bro­ker pulls out an entic­ing Epi­phone hol­low-body gui­tar, prompt­ing the nar­ra­tor to lis­ten to the bro­ker play it with new­found inter­est. Their trans­ac­tion secures them some Cana­di­an cur­ren­cy, allow­ing them to return to the mar­ket and reclaim the chick­en they had set aside.

After enjoy­ing the chick­en and gath­er­ing sup­plies, includ­ing eggs, bacon, and ice, the nar­ra­tor feels a shift in the weath­er as a storm brews on the hori­zon. They reflect on their past encoun­ters with a woman at a ser­vice sta­tion, reveal­ing a dark his­to­ry tied to a town called Gold, which had trag­i­cal­ly dis­ap­peared. Amidst their errand, they come across a miss­ing per­sons bul­letin board. To their shock, they find a poster of Kel­lan, their com­pan­ion, labeled as “our bright & zip­py Kel­lan,” stir­ring feel­ings of con­cern and com­plex­i­ty regard­ing Kel­lan’s fate.

As they pre­pare to leave, the nar­ra­tor buys a phone and con­tem­plates mak­ing a call about Kel­lan. After some hes­i­ta­tion, they dial the num­ber on the poster, which leads to an unex­pect­ed con­ver­sa­tion with Wer­ryck, a char­ac­ter asso­ci­at­ed with Kellan’s past. Ten­sion esca­lates as Wer­ryck attempts to jus­ti­fy his actions and the chaot­ic sit­u­a­tion sur­round­ing Kel­lan, as well as Lark’s trag­ic cir­cum­stances. The con­ver­sa­tion reveals Kel­lan’s dubi­ous activ­i­ties con­nect­ed to a ther­a­peu­tic sub­stance called Wil­low, which com­pli­cates the nar­ra­tor’s feel­ings about his char­ac­ter. Ulti­mate­ly, they are left grap­pling with the impli­ca­tions of Kel­lan’s choic­es and Wer­ryck­’s omi­nous offer to pro­vide infor­ma­tion in exchange for help. The chap­ter con­cludes with ris­ing con­flict and the narrator’s deter­mi­na­tion to break free from Werryck’s manip­u­la­tions.