Chap­ter XXVIII con­tin­ues the group’s jour­ney south, with the dis­tance from Sali­na still weigh­ing heav­i­ly on their minds. Despite the Beau­mont family’s strong encour­age­ment to head straight to Sali­na Hope Hos­pi­tal, Lester remains firm in his deci­sion to take one last detour. As the miles pass, the group dis­tracts them­selves by munch­ing on snacks from the Mega Mega Mart, each per­son doing their best to keep their thoughts away from Pop­pa, who remains in the hos­pi­tal. This small diver­sion serves as a brief respite, but the ten­sion sur­round­ing Poppa’s con­di­tion lingers in the back of their minds, shap­ing the atmos­phere as they move for­ward.

The jour­ney takes a tense turn as they approach Man­hat­tan, where the sound of a police siren caus­es the chil­dren to stiff­en in anx­i­ety. For a brief moment, they fear it might be relat­ed to them, but their appre­hen­sion fades when they real­ize it’s not. Instead, they focus on Lill and Lester, whose qui­et inter­ac­tion with each oth­er seems to have absorbed their atten­tion. How­ev­er, Fish, with his height­ened sens­es, declares that he smells water, which imme­di­ate­ly rais­es con­cern among the kids. Lester, try­ing to alle­vi­ate the unease, con­firms their prox­im­i­ty to Tut­tle Creek Lake, offer­ing a mea­sure of com­fort to Fish and calm­ing the group’s nerves for the time being.

As the group con­tin­ues their jour­ney, the nar­ra­tor seeks to pro­vide reas­sur­ance to Fish, who is still haunt­ed by his trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence dur­ing the hur­ri­cane. The nar­ra­tor reminds him that he is in con­trol, empha­siz­ing his strength and resilience. Just as the con­ver­sa­tion set­tles, the men­tion of Carlene’s name caus­es Lester to react with vis­i­ble ten­sion. This men­tion stirs up past emo­tions, espe­cial­ly regard­ing his tat­toos, which are tied to a dif­fi­cult and com­plex his­to­ry with Car­lene. The group, feel­ing the weight of Lester’s dis­com­fort, shifts their focus to Carlene’s rep­u­ta­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly her ques­tion­able actions with ani­mals, which casts a shad­ow over the con­ver­sa­tion and cre­ates unease among the chil­dren.

Lester ini­tial­ly appears to be lost in thought, the harsh words of Rhon­da and Car­lene echo­ing in his mind. Their neg­a­tive influ­ence clear­ly weighs on him, and Mibs, frus­trat­ed by this, admon­ish­es him for allow­ing their voic­es to hold such pow­er. Lester, despite his dis­com­fort, begins to reflect on the truth of his rela­tion­ship with Car­lene, rec­og­niz­ing the decep­tion she had caused in his life. He comes to terms with the fact that it was Car­lene who had secured both his job and the bus, a real­iza­tion that hits him with a mix­ture of guilt and clar­i­ty. The ten­sion sur­round­ing Carlene’s influ­ence is pal­pa­ble, but it is through this self-reflec­tion that Lester begins to under­stand the full scope of his con­nec­tion to her.

In a rare moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, Lester opens up about his desire to set­tle his debts with Car­lene before he can move for­ward in his rela­tion­ship with Lill. This moment of hon­esty offers insight into Lester’s inter­nal strug­gle, as he acknowl­edges the lin­ger­ing ties to his past that he must con­front before he can embrace a future with Lill. Lill, ever sup­port­ive, responds with com­pas­sion, reas­sur­ing him that he is not alone in his jour­ney and that togeth­er, they can over­come the shad­ows of his past. This gen­tle exchange brings a sense of hope and clar­i­ty to Lester, and he feels as though he has final­ly found a guid­ing light in Lill, whose unwa­ver­ing sup­port helps him nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of his past. The chap­ter ends on a note of opti­mism, high­light­ing Lester’s growth as he begins to reclaim his sense of self amidst the chal­lenges and self-doubt that have long held him back. It cap­tures the themes of per­son­al con­flict, redemp­tion, and the impor­tance of sup­port from those who care, set­ting the stage for Lester to begin heal­ing and mov­ing for­ward.