In the chap­ter titled “Encounter #2 with the Rain­bow-Haired Girl,” Miles Fall, a young boy with a unique gift, is intro­duced. He has the abil­i­ty to see the souls of dogs and com­mu­ni­cate with them, which deeply con­nects him with his loy­al com­pan­ion, San­dro, a black Lab. How­ev­er, Miles is nav­i­gat­ing a trou­bled phase of his life, avoid­ing school and the expec­ta­tions of both his peers and his fam­i­ly. His emo­tion­al strug­gles have led to iso­la­tion, as he bat­tles with men­tal health issues that have dis­tanced him from every­thing he once found famil­iar. Despite the out­ward appear­ance of being a per­fect stu­dent, as seen by his fam­i­ly and school, Miles feels like a cos­mic mis­take, an over­whelm­ing sense of alien­ation that he can­not escape. Though he rarely cries, he wakes up in the morn­ings with his pil­lows damp, the tears flow­ing silent­ly in the night as he nav­i­gates his strug­gles alone.

As the days go by, Miles’s emo­tion­al state con­tin­ues to wors­en, prompt­ing him to quit var­i­ous clubs and sports that once pro­vid­ed struc­ture in his life. Instead, he finds him­self retreat­ing into what he calls the “Gloom Room,” a men­tal space that reflects his inner tur­moil and despair. Despite this, his con­nec­tion with San­dro becomes a source of com­fort and under­stand­ing, as both of them face their lone­li­ness and long­ing togeth­er. San­dro, too, has known the pain of loss, hav­ing once been bond­ed with a com­pan­ion named Beau­ty. Their shared grief becomes a way for them to under­stand one anoth­er with­out words, both find­ing solace in the qui­et com­pan­ion­ship that allows them to reflect and heal. Their bond deep­ens, sym­bol­iz­ing how some­times, even in the dark­est moments, there can be a flick­er of hope in the under­stand­ing between two beings who have been hurt by the world.

As the chap­ter unfolds, Miles begins to reflect on a piv­otal moment in his past, when he shared a trans­for­ma­tive kiss with a cook named Nico. This expe­ri­ence brings to the sur­face feel­ings that Miles had long buried, lead­ing him to ques­tion his under­stand­ing of love and iden­ti­ty. For the first time, he feels the stir­rings of attrac­tion, not just for boys, but also for the girl he met lat­er in the chap­ter. This kiss becomes a turn­ing point in his life, forc­ing him to con­front his desires and the com­plex­i­ties of his emo­tions. His jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery begins to take shape, and Miles is forced to reck­on with the broad­er spec­trum of his feel­ings, real­iz­ing that love and attrac­tion do not con­form to sim­ple labels or def­i­n­i­tions. The kiss ignites an inter­nal bat­tle, prompt­ing him to reflect on his feel­ings of love, the intense emo­tions he had kept hid­den for so long, and the process of fig­ur­ing out who he real­ly is.

On a par­tic­u­lar­ly hot day, Miles stum­bles upon an orange vin­tage pick­up truck, which leads him to meet a girl with vibrant rain­bow-col­ored hair. She’s adorned in tat­toos and sur­round­ed by books, and her quirky appear­ance cap­tures Miles’s atten­tion in a way he hasn’t expe­ri­enced before. As she sleeps in the truck, Miles feels a surge of curios­i­ty and unfa­mil­iar attrac­tion toward her, some­thing he can’t quite explain. The girl’s pres­ence stirs emo­tions in him that chal­lenge every­thing he thought he knew about him­self, his desires, and his under­stand­ing of love. Before she leaves, she shares a thought-pro­vok­ing quote by Joseph Camp­bell, which leaves Miles feel­ing inspired and thought­ful. Her words spark a deep inter­nal reflec­tion with­in him, forc­ing him to recon­sid­er his path for­ward and the con­nec­tions he has with oth­ers, includ­ing those that are unex­pect­ed and unfa­mil­iar.

The chap­ter ends with Miles feel­ing an intense sense of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, a feel­ing he has rarely allowed him­self to express. As he con­tem­plates his feel­ings about love and desire, he begins to admit to him­self that he is not as cer­tain of his iden­ti­ty as he once thought. This real­iza­tion marks a sig­nif­i­cant shift in his emo­tion­al land­scape, as he allows him­self to embrace his vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and acknowl­edge his uncer­tain­ties. Through­out this jour­ney of self-reflec­tion, San­dro remains by his side, offer­ing unwa­ver­ing loy­al­ty and com­fort, a con­stant reminder that some con­nec­tions, like the one between a boy and his dog, are pure and uncon­di­tion­al. Miles’s new­found emo­tion­al open­ness sets the stage for his growth and under­stand­ing of love, iden­ti­ty, and the com­plex­i­ties of human con­nec­tion, while his bond with San­dro offers him a sta­ble anchor amid the chaos of his inner world.