Chap­ter XXVII begins with the group’s arrival in Wymore just as the morn­ing church ser­vice is fin­ish­ing, pre­sent­ing the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for them to make their deliv­ery. Lester parks the large pink Bible bus in front of the church, prepar­ing to deliv­er a batch of pink Bibles, some­thing Lill is con­fi­dent will be well received, par­tic­u­lar­ly by the minister’s wife. Lill, always sup­port­ive, offers words of encour­age­ment, accom­pa­nied by a quick kiss for good luck, which leaves Lester blush­ing, his chest puffed with pride. She has spent time coach­ing him, help­ing him build his con­fi­dence, and it’s clear that her influ­ence has made a notice­able impact on how he car­ries him­self. Lester, once hes­i­tant and unsure, now stands taller and ready to take on the task with a new­found sense of pur­pose.

As Lester steps away to make the deliv­ery, Lill watch­es him intent­ly from the bus, her eyes filled with affec­tion and con­cern. Her love for him is evi­dent, but there’s also a sense of anx­i­ety about the suc­cess of this moment. Mean­while, Fish and Will begin to joke around, dis­rupt­ing the tense atmos­phere with play­ful ban­ter. Their laugh­ter is a brief reprieve from the ten­sion, but it’s quick­ly over­shad­owed when Lester returns with a tri­umphant air. He announces that not only did the min­is­ter accept the Bibles, but the Wymore Women’s Guild also placed an order for three more cas­es. This news is a huge relief for Lester, who had been anx­ious about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of unsold inven­to­ry, and the suc­cess of the deliv­ery fills him with a sense of accom­plish­ment.

Buoyed by this suc­cess, Lester, feel­ing more con­fi­dent, recruits Fish and Will to help car­ry the box­es into the church. While they attempt to keep a low pro­file, wor­ried about being rec­og­nized from the news reports about the miss­ing chil­dren, they can’t avoid attract­ing some atten­tion. Despite their con­cerns, they return from the deliv­ery with cash in hand and a box of donuts as a reward. The sug­ary treats offer a momen­tary dis­trac­tion and a sense of joy, but Fish, who had been uneasy from the start, feels his wor­ries deep­en as Lester announces a change in plans. They will be mak­ing a detour before head­ing to Sali­na, and Fish’s unease grows as he con­tem­plates what this might mean for their jour­ney. The uncer­tain­ty of what lies ahead begins to weigh heav­i­ly on every­one, espe­cial­ly Mibs and the oth­ers, who are anx­ious about the next step in their jour­ney and their father’s even­tu­al return.

As Mibs strug­gles with her feel­ings and the grow­ing sense of uncer­tain­ty, her gaze is drawn to a crum­pled mag­a­zine cov­er that depicts a heart. The image trig­gers a moment of intro­spec­tion, and she becomes lost in thought, con­tem­plat­ing the fragili­ty of emo­tions and life itself. This reflec­tion leads to a per­son­al rev­e­la­tion as she opens up to Will, con­fess­ing that while she likes him, she’s not ready for a roman­tic rela­tion­ship. It’s a vul­ner­a­ble moment for Mibs, one that marks a sig­nif­i­cant step in her emo­tion­al growth, as she begins to under­stand the com­plex­i­ty of her feel­ings. In a qui­et, sym­bol­ic ges­ture, Mibs hands Will her cher­ished birth­day pen, a small but mean­ing­ful act that sig­ni­fies her will­ing­ness to let go of some­thing impor­tant while grow­ing emo­tion­al­ly. Will, under­stand­ing the depth of her words, promis­es to wait for her, and Mibs, though still pro­cess­ing the weight of their con­ver­sa­tion, looks out the win­dow of the bus. The world out­side is mov­ing, yet inside, she is in a tran­si­tion­al phase of self-dis­cov­ery and emo­tion­al mat­u­ra­tion. This moment marks a sig­nif­i­cant point in her jour­ney, as she nav­i­gates the uncer­tain­ty of her own feel­ings and begins to under­stand the deep­er lay­ers of rela­tion­ships and per­son­al growth.