In the wake of Papa Grif­f’s pass­ing, Sol was deeply affect­ed but chose not to show her emo­tions out­ward­ly. As she expressed her hatred for the lake that had claimed two of her uncles and now Griff, it became her unyield­ing ene­my. This sen­ti­ment res­onat­ed with Girard, who mourned silent­ly, while Eve­lyn occu­pied her­self in the kitchen. An hour lat­er, the group ven­tured into the north­ern for­est with a pic­nic bas­ket, arriv­ing at a serene clear­ing sur­round­ed by fra­grant cedars. Here, they dis­cov­ered stone mark­ers resem­bling obelisks, unadorned with names, which rep­re­sent­ed the lost rel­a­tives of the com­mu­ni­ty. Eve­lyn revealed that this land was a bur­ial site estab­lished by a deceased local landown­er who wished for her hus­band’s unclaimed body to be buried there as well.

They decid­ed to pic­nic in the shade, despite Sol declar­ing her ongo­ing aver­sion to the lake. The nar­ra­tor had oth­er plans, feel­ing com­pelled to sail to the Slate Islands dur­ing the per­i­he­lion when the Tashi comet would be vis­i­ble. Though Jolie was host­ing a local fes­ti­val with music and fes­tiv­i­ties, he sought the adven­ture of the sea, believ­ing such a jour­ney would lead to mean­ing­ful encoun­ters.

Equipped with sup­plies from Eve­lyn and Girard’s library, he arrived at the Slate Islands, greet­ed by wildlife that remind­ed him of cher­ished mem­o­ries. That first night was over­cast, eclips­ing the comet, and instead of read­ing or mak­ing music, he sim­ply enjoyed the ambiance of the night.

The fol­low­ing day, he explored the beach, not­ing wildlife tracks but found the island desert­ed as a storm rolled in, bring­ing heavy rain­fall and soli­tude. As he resigned him­self to a qui­et evening inside, con­sum­ing a sim­ple stew accom­pa­nied by the last jar of pre­serves, he found him­self drift­ing into a rest­ful slum­ber. In this state, he expe­ri­enced a dream­like vision of his friends a decade into the future, which awak­ened a mix of nos­tal­gia and hope.

By dawn, the rain ceased, prompt­ing him to return home­ward. Approach­ing Jolie, he learned of changes in the com­mu­ni­ty through the music of a new bassist named Rachel, whose tal­ent stirred a sense of melan­choly and won­der. He was cap­ti­vat­ed by her unique sound, which promised vibran­cy and a new­found ener­gy that con­trast­ed with his own sim­pler approach to music. As the comet reap­peared over­head, he nav­i­gat­ed his way toward a live­ly scene in Jolie, reflect­ing on the beau­ty he often failed to rec­og­nize.