Miles moves through the busy hos­pi­tal lob­by, a heavy sense of wor­ry set­tling in his chest. His broth­er Wyn­ton lies in a coma, his con­di­tion lin­ger­ing in a state of uncer­tain­ty that has tak­en a toll on Miles emo­tion­al­ly. To make mat­ters worse, Miles is still reel­ing from a recent con­ver­sa­tion with Dean Richards, who had ques­tioned his aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance and behav­ior, mak­ing him feel increas­ing­ly inad­e­quate. Desir­ing to escape the over­whelm­ing real­i­ty of the hos­pi­tal, Miles tries to dis­tance him­self from the anx­i­ety by leav­ing the build­ing. How­ev­er, his escape is inter­rupt­ed when he trips over the large foot of a man stand­ing too close, send­ing him off bal­ance. The man, who wears mir­rored sun­glass­es and sports a han­dle­bar mus­tache, imme­di­ate­ly apol­o­gizes in a way that catch­es Miles off guard. Despite his frus­tra­tion at the moment, Miles is momen­tar­i­ly dis­armed by the man’s polite­ness, which cre­ates a brief and unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion in the midst of his emo­tion­al tur­moil.

Miles tries to brush off the awk­ward encounter, plan­ning to make his exit, but the man, who intro­duces him­self as Felix Rivera from Den­ver, draws him back into con­ver­sa­tion. Felix’s vibrant per­son­al­i­ty and eccen­tric fashion—marked by a col­or­ful shirt and suspenders—add an ele­ment of sur­prise to the inter­ac­tion. As they talk, Felix makes a com­ment that strikes Miles as curious—he men­tions that Miles is a descen­dant of Alon­so Fall, a fam­i­ly con­nec­tion that Miles does­n’t rec­og­nize. To fur­ther com­pli­cate things, Felix drops an odd men­tion of Miles’s dog, Dizzy, a com­ment that leaves Miles won­der­ing how this stranger seems to know so much. This strange exchange, while per­plex­ing, starts to pique Miles’s curios­i­ty, though it also makes him feel more uneasy and con­fused about his own emo­tions and the pecu­liar nature of the encounter. Felix’s seem­ing­ly ran­dom remarks only serve to deep­en the mys­tery, adding a sur­re­al qual­i­ty to the moment that Miles can’t shake off.

Felix’s remarks con­tin­ue to unset­tle Miles as the con­ver­sa­tion shifts toward his broth­er Wyn­ton. Felix express­es a sur­pris­ing con­cern for Wynton’s well-being, speak­ing about him in a man­ner that seems both out of place and unex­pect­ed­ly empa­thet­ic. The odd­i­ty of Felix’s con­cern, com­bined with his light­heart­ed tone, con­fus­es Miles even fur­ther, leav­ing him unsure of how to react. Felix goes as far as to say that Miles is “glow­ing,” a state­ment that baf­fles him even more, caus­ing him to ques­tion Felix’s intent and his under­stand­ing of the sit­u­a­tion. Despite the unease, a strange sense of relief wash­es over Miles from the inter­ac­tion, almost as if Felix’s eccen­tric­i­ty and care­free atti­tude offer a small escape from the over­whelm­ing seri­ous­ness of his brother’s con­di­tion. In the midst of the hospital’s tense atmos­phere, Felix’s play­ful per­son­al­i­ty pro­vides a brief, yet sig­nif­i­cant, dis­trac­tion, leav­ing Miles both per­plexed and slight­ly amused.

Even­tu­al­ly, Miles exits the hos­pi­tal, feel­ing slight­ly lighter, though still baf­fled by the strange encounter. The cool air out­side offers a stark con­trast to the claus­tro­pho­bic atmos­phere inside the hos­pi­tal, pro­vid­ing Miles with a momen­tary sense of relief. As he walks, his mind keeps return­ing to the odd con­ver­sa­tion he had with Felix, who had appeared out of nowhere and brought a burst of eccen­tric­i­ty into the midst of his oth­er­wise grim day. Felix’s unex­pect­ed com­ments and odd behav­ior leave Miles reflect­ing on the unpre­dictabil­i­ty of human inter­ac­tions and the strange moments of con­nec­tion that can emerge even in the most dif­fi­cult of times. Though the encounter was short, it has a last­ing impact, and Miles real­izes that Felix’s pres­ence may have opened a door to some­thing much deeper—something he is not yet ready to ful­ly under­stand. The chap­ter ends with Miles feel­ing a sense of qui­et antic­i­pa­tion, know­ing that the jour­ney ahead, includ­ing the mys­tery sur­round­ing Felix, will unfold in ways he can’t yet pre­dict. The chap­ter con­cludes with the under­stand­ing that, amidst his brother’s cri­sis, Miles is also nav­i­gat­ing his own emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties, and Felix might be the key to unlock­ing some of the answers he’s seek­ing.