Chap­ter III delves into the narrator’s strug­gle with the absence of their moth­er and the arrival of Miss Rose­mary, who, despite her well-mean­ing efforts, can­not replace the emo­tion­al gap left by their mother’s absence. Miss Rose­mary brings along her two younger chil­dren, Rober­ta and Will Junior, hop­ing to offer some com­pan­ion­ship to the nar­ra­tor and their broth­er, Sam­son. How­ev­er, the sib­lings are less than thrilled by this arrange­ment, as the absence of a tele­vi­sion and their own reluc­tance to con­nect with the guests leaves them feel­ing dis­tant and uncom­fort­able. The atmos­phere in the house becomes more strained as the fam­i­ly adjusts to this forced inter­ac­tion, each mem­ber pro­cess­ing their grief and unease in their own way.

When Miss Rosemary’s daugh­ter, Bob­bi, enters the room, her pres­ence only adds to the ten­sion. At six­teen, Bob­bi is open­ly dis­dain­ful of being at the house, show­ing lit­tle respect for the family’s sit­u­a­tion. She care­less­ly sifts through their mother’s unfin­ished art­work, her actions sig­nal­ing a lack of sen­si­tiv­i­ty toward the family’s pain, espe­cial­ly since their father is hos­pi­tal­ized. Mean­while, Will Junior, Bobbi’s younger broth­er, tries to smooth over the awk­ward­ness by encour­ag­ing Bob­bi to show respect, espe­cial­ly giv­en the grav­i­ty of their father’s ill­ness. Despite his attempt to medi­ate, the dif­fer­ence in matu­ri­ty between him and Bob­bi becomes appar­ent, with Will Junior act­ing as a qui­eter, more solemn fig­ure, seek­ing to con­nect with the nar­ra­tor and Sam­son in a more con­sid­er­ate man­ner.

Bobbi’s teenage defi­ance takes cen­ter stage as she com­plains about the sit­u­a­tion and dra­mat­i­cal­ly lounges on the sofa, with eye shad­ow and a pierced eye­brow that reflect her rebel­lion. This behav­ior leaves the nar­ra­tor intrigued and slight­ly puz­zled, won­der­ing how Miss Rose­mary man­ages to par­ent her daugh­ter. Will Junior, in con­trast, is neat and com­posed, try­ing his best to engage with the nar­ra­tor and Sam­son about their father’s health and express­ing his hope for his recov­ery. While Will Junior’s inten­tions are unde­ni­ably kind, the nar­ra­tor feels awk­ward and uncom­fort­able, caught between a sense of grat­i­tude for his kind­ness and a grow­ing sense of guilt for not hav­ing prayed for their father’s recov­ery soon­er.

As the day pro­gress­es, Sam­son, strug­gling with his own emo­tion­al tur­moil, retreats with his deceased pet tur­tle, sym­bol­iz­ing his vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and the deep sense of loss he feels. Mean­while, Will Junior attempts to offer com­fort by men­tion­ing the food they’ve brought, specif­i­cal­ly meat­loaf made by their moth­er, think­ing it might ease their pain. How­ev­er, the men­tion of food falls flat, as the nar­ra­tor quick­ly real­izes that no meal, no mat­ter how thought­ful­ly pre­pared, can heal the deep­er emo­tion­al wounds they are expe­ri­enc­ing. This real­iza­tion under­scores the theme of the chap­ter: the vis­it is not about food or super­fi­cial com­fort, but about the com­plex­i­ties of cop­ing with grief and loss. The dynam­ics between the char­ac­ters illus­trate the dis­com­fort of forced social inter­ac­tions, the vary­ing lev­els of empa­thy from the vis­i­tors, and the chal­lenges the fam­i­ly faces as they attempt to nav­i­gate their feel­ings in the wake of their father’s hos­pi­tal­iza­tion.

This chap­ter reveals the nuances of cop­ing with fam­i­ly crises, espe­cial­ly the emo­tion­al weight of miss­ing a key fig­ure in the fam­i­ly while try­ing to engage with oth­ers who don’t ful­ly under­stand the depth of the sit­u­a­tion. The com­plex inter­ac­tions between the nar­ra­tor, Sam­son, and their vis­i­tors empha­size how grief can cre­ate walls between indi­vid­u­als, even those who share a com­mon bond of fam­i­ly. The dis­com­fort felt dur­ing this vis­it high­lights the emo­tion­al dis­tance that often aris­es in times of cri­sis, as every­one deals with their emo­tions in dif­fer­ent ways. Through these inter­ac­tions, read­ers are shown the dif­fi­cul­ty of find­ing solace, espe­cial­ly when well-mean­ing ges­tures fall short of address­ing the real emo­tion­al needs that the fam­i­ly is grap­pling with.