Chap­ter 3 opens with the nar­ra­tor wak­ing up in a hos­pi­tal room, dis­ori­ent­ed and in pain after a car acci­dent that left him with a bro­ken arm and ribs. While he feels relief that no one else was hurt in the inci­dent, he is faced with the crush­ing real­i­ty that his streak of acci­dent-free dri­ving has come to an end. His future at his job as a UPS dri­ver is uncer­tain, as a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive offers reas­sur­ance, but a cor­po­rate rep­re­sen­ta­tive hints that the ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion could jeop­ar­dize his career. A reporter vis­its the hos­pi­tal, sug­gest­ing that poor work­ing con­di­tions and man­age­men­t’s neg­li­gence con­tributed to the crash. How­ev­er, the nar­ra­tor takes respon­si­bil­i­ty for the acci­dent, acknowl­edg­ing his mis­takes and insist­ing that his train­ing and sense of duty should have guid­ed him bet­ter.

After spend­ing three nights in the hos­pi­tal, the nar­ra­tor returns home, only to find that his life has been dras­ti­cal­ly changed. Left with too much time on his hands, he becomes frus­trat­ed and dis­il­lu­sioned with the monot­o­ny of day­time tele­vi­sion, spi­ral­ing into neg­a­tiv­i­ty and iso­la­tion. The weight of the acci­dent looms over him, par­tic­u­lar­ly when he recalls a strange encounter with a man who resem­bled Aidan, a friend of his daugh­ter Mag­gie. This encounter haunts him, and the guilt over his inabil­i­ty to seek clar­i­ty or under­stand the sit­u­a­tion fur­ther exac­er­bates his sense of unease. His thoughts con­stant­ly return to the event, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for him to shake off the neg­a­tiv­i­ty and iso­la­tion that has tak­en hold of him.

The sit­u­a­tion changes when his sis­ter, Tam­my, calls and asks him to look after his niece Abi­gail. Ini­tial­ly, the nar­ra­tor declines, feel­ing unfit to care for her due to his injuries. How­ev­er, when he wakes up to find Abi­gail already at his house, he reluc­tant­ly agrees to take on the respon­si­bil­i­ty. They spend time togeth­er, most­ly watch­ing doc­u­men­taries, with Abi­gail becom­ing more present and vocal in his life. As they inter­act, the nar­ra­tor notices how much she has changed since their last meet­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly her resilience and matu­ri­ty. This sub­tle trans­for­ma­tion high­lights the pas­sage of time and makes him reflect on the impor­tance of his fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly with Maggie’s absence.

In the course of their time togeth­er, Abi­gail starts to sift through Mag­gie’s old belong­ings, includ­ing stuffed ani­mals that hold sen­ti­men­tal val­ue. The nar­ra­tor unex­pect­ed­ly sug­gests that Abi­gail take what­ev­er she wants, real­iz­ing the emo­tion­al void left by Maggie’s absence. Despite his over­whelm­ing feel­ings of sad­ness and despon­den­cy, he begins to feel a glim­mer of hope. The urge to break free from his dark thoughts and cre­ate new mem­o­ries pro­pels him to take Abi­gail out for a spon­ta­neous adven­ture. Togeth­er, they vis­it famil­iar places from his past, includ­ing the site of his acci­dent, where he con­fronts the painful mem­o­ries while also seek­ing clo­sure. Their jour­ney through these per­son­al land­marks offers a mix of nos­tal­gia and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of heal­ing.

As the day pro­gress­es, the two of them engage in a bond­ing expe­ri­ence that brings a momen­tary reprieve from the narrator’s anx­i­ety. One of the high­lights of the day is a mem­o­rable trip to a canoe­ing site along the Delaware Riv­er, where they nav­i­gate the calm waters togeth­er. This expe­ri­ence fos­ters a con­nec­tion between them, allow­ing the nar­ra­tor to tem­porar­i­ly for­get about the acci­dent and the rip­ple effects it has caused in his life. As sum­mer comes to a close, he real­izes how pre­cious these moments are and how much he val­ues the time spent with Abi­gail. This real­iza­tion forces him to con­front his deep­er emo­tion­al needs, high­light­ing the impor­tance of fam­i­ly bonds and the neces­si­ty of cher­ish­ing the time they have togeth­er.