In Chap­ter XXIII, the cen­tral chal­lenge revolves around orches­trat­ing a con­vinc­ing deception—specifically, fool­ing Lill into believ­ing they had called home. The nar­ra­tor recalls past moments relat­ed to Lil­l’s par­ent­ing, includ­ing Bob­bi’s imi­ta­tion of Lill and pre­vi­ous inci­dents that led Bob­bi to cov­er for her­self at school using Lil­l’s voice. With two motel rooms pre­pared, the nar­ra­tor feels hope­ful about suc­cess­ful­ly exe­cut­ing this scheme for Lil­l’s ben­e­fit, to pre­vent any com­pli­ca­tions from call­ing home too ear­ly.

Lill inspects the motel rooms and assigns the girls and boys to sep­a­rate accom­mo­da­tions. The nar­ra­tor instructs her broth­er, Fish, on how to han­dle an incom­ing call with­out reveal­ing any­thing. Lill then encour­ages Bob­bi to con­tact her par­ents, not­ing their wor­ry over the chil­dren’s where­abouts. How­ev­er, as Bob­bi approach­es the phone, with Lill momen­tar­i­ly dis­tract­ed in the bath­room, the nar­ra­tor pro­vides guid­ance on what Bob­bi should say.

Bob­bi hes­i­tant­ly makes the call, pre­tend­ing to con­verse with her moth­er while Fish lis­tens silent­ly on the oth­er line. Bob­bi skill­ful­ly plays her role, pro­vid­ing fab­ri­cat­ed details about their safe­ty and plans towards the hos­pi­tal in Sali­na. Even­tu­al­ly, she pass­es the phone to the nar­ra­tor, who now must imper­son­ate a calm but shaky ver­sion of her­self.

Dur­ing the call, Lill anx­ious­ly awaits her turn to talk with Bob­bi, who clev­er­ly adopts her moth­er’s stern tone when the call tran­si­tions back. Lill, try­ing to reas­sure Bob­bi’s moth­er, gives the motel’s details, indi­cat­ing that they’re pre­pared to care for the chil­dren. As the con­ver­sa­tion wraps up, Lill appears relieved, express­ing opti­mism about the mother’s char­ac­ter, while the nar­ra­tor feels guilt over the deceit.

When Bob­bi and the boys return, they exude tri­umph, obliv­i­ous to Lil­l’s lin­ger­ing con­cerns. This chap­ter high­lights the lay­ers of decep­tion and famil­ial care, thread­ing along com­plex rela­tion­ships and the the­mat­ic nuances of growth, trust, and the lengths one might go to pro­tect loved ones.