In this chap­ter, Joe grap­ples with the impend­ing real­i­ty of his sit­u­a­tion as he con­tem­plates his life from a hos­pi­tal bed, filled with regret and long­ing. He reflects on his con­nec­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly his daugh­ter, Leah, whom he feels estranged from due to past trans­gres­sions. His mind wan­ders back to mem­o­ries of hik­ing, nos­tal­gia for lost fam­i­ly, and a desire to reclaim his role in Leah’s life—something he feels unable to do due to his dete­ri­o­rat­ing health.

A sig­nif­i­cant moment occurs dur­ing a hike when Joe injures his ankle after dis­cov­er­ing a plas­tic doll, sym­bol­iz­ing his lost con­nec­tions to child­hood and inno­cence. Forced to camp out overnight due to his injury, he con­vers­es with the doll, reveal­ing his yearn­ing for the fam­i­ly he has dis­tanced him­self from. This inter­ac­tion high­lights his inter­nal strug­gles and the emo­tion­al weight of his past actions.

Upon return­ing to soci­ety, Joe’s reflec­tions lead him back to a famil­iar area where he once picked berries. He encoun­ters Ellis, who offers him a job. The work pro­vides Joe a rou­tine and pur­pose as he begins recon­nect­ing with the past he had left behind. Despite the bit­ter­sweet mem­o­ries tied to the long-aban­doned cab­in, he embarks on a per­son­al restora­tion project, trans­form­ing the decrepit build­ing into a sem­blance of a home where he indulges in man­u­al labor. His jour­ney evokes strong mem­o­ries of child­hood sum­mers, inter­wo­ven with reflec­tions on lost sib­lings and guilt over famil­ial respon­si­bil­i­ties.

As the com­plex­i­ty of his emo­tions ties back to fam­i­ly dynam­ics, par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cern­ing Leah and the haunt­ing fig­ures from his past, Joe finds solace in the phys­i­cal repairs he makes. The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in an encounter with Frankie, a fig­ure from Joe’s past, elic­it­ing mixed feelings—trauma, regret, and unre­solved pain. A con­fronta­tion ensues, pro­pelling him fur­ther into his past and forc­ing him to con­front long-buried anger and grief, notably over his broth­er Charlie’s death.

Ulti­mate­ly, Joe’s jour­ney illus­trates his strug­gle between regret and a yearn­ing for con­nec­tion, rep­re­sent­ing a man on the cusp of redemp­tion while wrestling with the emo­tion­al bur­dens of his his­to­ry. The chap­ter ends with Joe con­tem­plat­ing his deci­sions and the unfold­ing real­i­ty of return­ing home, sug­gest­ing his will­ing­ness to con­front past wounds and rela­tion­ships with the hope of heal­ing.