In Chap­ter XVI, the nar­ra­tive intro­duces Lill Kite­ley, a charis­mat­ic wait­ress whose cheer­ful dis­po­si­tion imme­di­ate­ly endears her to the chil­dren on the bus, even man­ag­ing to light­en Bob­bi’s mood. Lill, with her light­heart­ed nature and absence of tat­toos, con­trasts sharply with the somber sit­u­a­tion sur­round­ing them. She finds her­self strand­ed on the road­side after her dilap­i­dat­ed car breaks down en route to her job at a truck-stop din­er. For­tu­nate­ly, Lester Swan res­cues her by stop­ping the bus, enabling her to con­tin­ue her jour­ney along­side the chil­dren.

As the jour­ney unfolds, Lill assumes a mater­nal role, tend­ing to the children’s needs while mak­ing sure to clean and ban­dage Fish’s injuries. This nur­tur­ing instinct pro­vides a com­fort­ing atmos­phere as she fuss­es over them, echo­ing the care a moth­er would bestow. One poignant moment occurs when Lill helps adjust the protagonist’s dress, which had become rum­pled. As Lill com­pli­ments the dress—picked out by the pro­tag­o­nist’s father—the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on the mean­ing­ful con­nec­tion to her father and the spe­cial mem­o­ries asso­ci­at­ed with it, despite feel­ing a pang of embar­rass­ment due to the teas­ing from oth­ers.

As they con­verse, the pro­tag­o­nist shares her feel­ings about her father’s health and her desire to help him, com­par­ing her role to that of “Sleep­ing Beau­ty,” empha­siz­ing her belief in her abil­i­ty to awak­en him. While Lill express­es con­cern about these lofty hopes, the pro­tag­o­nist dis­miss­es her wor­ry. This exchange reveals the deep­er emo­tion­al under­cur­rents as the pro­tag­o­nist grap­ples with fear and hope, link­ing her father and their shared mem­o­ries with her cur­rent strug­gles.

Lill’s under­stand­ing con­trasts with the judg­ment the pro­tag­o­nist feels from peers, par­tic­u­lar­ly regard­ing her dress and grow­ing feel­ings for a boy, Will. Lill reas­sures her that self-worth is not tied to oth­ers’ per­cep­tions. By the chap­ter’s con­clu­sion, Lill has trans­formed from a stranger into a com­fort­ing fig­ure, almost an angel, embody­ing sup­port and under­stand­ing in a tumul­tuous time. The chap­ter cap­tures the intri­ca­cies of child­hood emo­tions, famil­ial bonds, and the sig­nif­i­cance of hope in the face of adver­si­ty.