In Chap­ter XVIII, Mibs strug­gles emo­tion­al­ly after a trou­bling encounter. Weak and shak­en, she is sup­port­ed by Will, who tries to dis­tract her by lead­ing her to the Emer­ald Truck Stop Din­er and Lounge, where their friends await. Upon enter­ing, Mibs is over­whelmed by a cacoph­o­ny of thoughts pour­ing from the patrons, mak­ing her feel dizzy and nau­seous. The pres­ence of tat­tooed bik­ers and truck­ers ampli­fies her dis­com­fort. As she stum­bles, Fish and Will rush to steady her, show­ing con­cern for her state. Lill, their friend, offers help but faces her own trou­bles with a nag­ging wait­ress.

Mibs is then led to a cramped store­room filled with the scents of ketchup and pick­les, which reminds her of their home in Mis­sis­sip­pi. In the store­room, Lill encour­ages Mibs to rest on the sofa while she attends to her duties, leav­ing Fish to check on Mibs. Still dis­tract­ed by the dis­turb­ing noise inside her head, Mibs strug­gles with her sense of fail­ure regard­ing her savvy, as she grap­ples with the hope of bring­ing back their father, Pop­pa, who is away.

Fish, con­cerned about his sis­ter, insists she explain her abil­i­ties. Reluc­tant­ly, she reveals that her savvy seems linked to ink on skin, hint­ing at her abil­i­ty to read minds. This rev­e­la­tion com­pli­cates her feel­ings fur­ther, as she longs for a nor­mal life away from her unusu­al pow­ers. To demon­strate her abil­i­ty, Mibs uses a sil­ver pen giv­en by Will Junior and asks Fish to think of a num­ber. As she draws a sym­bol on his palm, she tran­scribes his thoughts with­out his prompt­ing, con­firm­ing that she can indeed hear what he’s think­ing.

Just as she begins to process this truth, Bob­bi inter­rupts, curi­ous about Mibs’ new­found abil­i­ty, “So you read minds, do you?” This con­fronta­tion leaves Mibs feel­ing exposed and trou­bled, set­ting the stage for deep­er explo­ration of her pow­ers and their impli­ca­tions on her fam­i­ly and friend­ships.