In the chap­ter titled “Cas­sidy,” we are intro­duced to Cas­sidy, a young woman nav­i­gat­ing her life at Dan­de­lion Road in Whis­per­ing Riv­er. Fol­low­ing her breakup with Peter the piz­za deliv­er­er, she is work­ing at a hot springs, enjoy­ing life with her father, the ranch man­ag­er Nigel, and his fam­i­ly, as well as her pets. Cas­sidy has deferred her Stan­ford admis­sion, feel­ing con­nect­ed to her home, par­tic­u­lar­ly her father, who she sees as her favorite per­son. How­ev­er, Cas­sidy har­bors a fear that her hap­py life is tem­po­rary, rem­i­nis­cent of her past expe­ri­ences with her moth­er, Marigold.

The nar­ra­tive shifts dra­mat­i­cal­ly when a wild­fire threat­ens their home. Cas­sidy is awok­en by the sounds of fire­fight­ers and the smell of smoke, prompt­ing her father to urge her to evac­u­ate. Despite his reas­sur­ances, Cas­sidy feels an over­whelm­ing sense of dread and retreat. She is reluc­tant to leave her safe space and instinc­tive­ly hides under her cov­ers, fear­ing that her father might not return. Even­tu­al­ly, she gath­ers only a few sig­nif­i­cant items: her mother’s dig­i­tal cam­era, her sto­ries about their time togeth­er, and a bag filled with cher­ished words, leav­ing behind var­i­ous per­son­al memen­tos.

As they dri­ve away, Cas­sidy reflects on her father’s mys­te­ri­ous behav­ior. He brings down two box­es from the attic filled with unspec­i­fied papers, and Cas­sidy’s sub­se­quent ques­tions unset­tle him, reveal­ing the fragili­ty of their rela­tion­ship. Despite her efforts to under­stand him, her father becomes defen­sive, lead­ing to a con­fronta­tion where he for­bids her from explor­ing the con­tents of the box­es. This moment shat­ters Cassidy’s per­cep­tion of her father as a steady pres­ence, leav­ing her feel­ing con­fused and vul­ner­a­ble as they flee the approach­ing dan­ger. The chap­ter cap­tures the tense mix of famil­ial love, fear of loss, and unre­solved secrets that chal­lenge Cassidy’s sense of secu­ri­ty in an ever-chang­ing world.