Cassidy’s life takes an unex­pect­ed turn in the chap­ter as she and her moth­er, Marigold, set­tle into their famil­iar camp­ing rou­tine after the rain­storm, cre­at­ing a sense of com­fort at their home on wheels, Sadie. How­ev­er, the arrival of a man from the neigh­bor­ing RV shat­ters the peace they had care­ful­ly cul­ti­vat­ed. Cas­sidy quick­ly dubs him “Dick Weasel,” part­ly due to his brash demeanor, but also because his intru­sion into their seclud­ed world sparks feel­ings of irri­ta­tion and unease with­in her. Marigold, how­ev­er, seems to find him intrigu­ing, laugh­ing at his flir­ta­tious com­ments about onions and becom­ing sur­pris­ing­ly engaged in his pres­ence, which deeply con­fus­es Cas­sidy. This new­found atten­tion from Marigold toward this stranger makes Cas­sidy feel dis­con­nect­ed from her moth­er and brings to the sur­face a sense of jeal­ousy and frus­tra­tion, as if their qui­et, inti­mate world is no longer a safe space for her.

The ten­sion between Cas­sidy and her moth­er con­tin­ues to esca­late as she watch­es Marigold inter­act with the man, notic­ing how her moth­er seems to blos­som under his atten­tion. Cassidy’s irri­ta­tion grows as she becomes more aware of how dif­fer­ent this new ver­sion of her moth­er is—carefree, flir­ta­tious, and ani­mat­ed in a way that she has nev­er seen before. The sight of Marigold hand­ing the man a knife only height­ens her con­cerns, sig­nal­ing that their once sta­ble and pro­tec­tive envi­ron­ment may no longer be secure. Cas­sidy retreats into Sadie, try­ing to process her feel­ings of being pushed aside and for­got­ten as her moth­er moves fur­ther away from her emo­tion­al­ly. The emo­tion­al toll of wit­ness­ing this shift in their dynam­ic weighs heav­i­ly on Cas­sidy, who is strug­gling with the grow­ing dis­tance between her­self and her moth­er, and the intru­sion of this stranger into their lives.

The new man, who Cas­sidy now begrudg­ing­ly accepts as a part of their real­i­ty, con­tin­ues to deep­en the grow­ing divide between her and her moth­er. Despite his play­ful charm and unex­pect­ed culi­nary skills, which impress Marigold, Cas­sidy can­not shake the dis­com­fort she feels. The evening din­ner, which should have been a bond­ing expe­ri­ence, only high­lights her exclu­sion, as Marigold and the man exchange jokes and share a moment of close­ness that Cas­sidy finds her­self entire­ly dis­con­nect­ed from. Her feel­ings of jeal­ousy and aban­don­ment esca­late when she real­izes that her moth­er and the man have left the camp­site togeth­er, fur­ther deep­en­ing her sense of alien­ation. With these feel­ings of betray­al and rejec­tion swelling with­in her, Cas­sidy storms off into the woods, deter­mined to find her moth­er but only becom­ing more lost in the process. She is over­come with fear, con­fu­sion, and the haunt­ing real­iza­tion that she no longer has the same place in her mother’s life.

As the day gives way to night, Cassidy’s emo­tion­al break­down reach­es its peak as exhaus­tion takes over and she col­laps­es in the woods. The inten­si­ty of the emo­tions that have been build­ing through­out the day—the sense of aban­don­ment, the jeal­ousy, the confusion—culminate in her phys­i­cal col­lapse. Even­tu­al­ly, res­cue efforts, led by Dave and oth­ers, man­age to find Cas­sidy, but her mother’s attempt to com­fort her feels emp­ty and hol­low. The chap­ter clos­es on a bit­ter­sweet note, where Cas­sidy final­ly comes face-to-face with the painful real­i­ty that the bond she shared with her moth­er has shift­ed in ways she can­not eas­i­ly under­stand. The arrival of the man from the neigh­bor­ing RV has irrev­o­ca­bly changed the dynam­ics of their rela­tion­ship, leav­ing Cas­sidy to con­front a future where she may no longer hold the same place in her moth­er’s world. The chap­ter paints a vivid pic­ture of the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly, the frag­ile nature of con­nec­tions, and the emo­tion­al tur­moil that can arise when we least expect it.