In this chap­ter, we meet Miles and his dog San­dro as they embark on an unex­pect­ed ride with a girl who has an over­whelm­ing flo­ral scent. As they dri­ve, con­ver­sa­tion flows eas­i­ly between them, focus­ing on their mutu­al inter­est in lit­er­a­ture, par­tic­u­lar­ly Stein­beck. The girl express­es her admi­ra­tion for Stein­beck­’s work, while Miles shares his mixed feel­ings about the author’s didac­tic style. The dia­logue reveals Miles’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and the com­plex dynam­ics of his rela­tion­ship with his old­er broth­er, Wyn­ton, who often humil­i­ates him.

Miles nar­rates an unfor­tu­nate inci­dent from his child­hood where Wyn­ton attempt­ed to sell him at a super­mar­ket, empha­siz­ing the sib­ling rival­ry and betray­al he feels. As they dri­ve deep­er into a moun­tain­ous area, a con­nec­tion fos­ters between Miles and the girl, marked by shared laugh­ter and an ease in their con­ver­sa­tion that he has nev­er expe­ri­enced before.

Miles opens up about his tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship with Wyn­ton and the pain of feel­ing unloved, recall­ing mem­o­ries of his neglect­ed child­hood where he sought Wyn­ton’s approval and love. As their jour­ney pro­gress­es, an emo­tion­al tran­si­tion occurs with­in Miles — he begins to feel lighter and more con­nect­ed, sug­gest­ing a turn­ing point in his life.

Arriv­ing at Jere­mi­ah Falls, the girl reveals a sig­nif­i­cant tat­tooed word, “sehn­sucht,” rep­re­sent­ing a yearn­ing that res­onates with Miles. Their time spent by the falls is trans­for­ma­tive for Miles; he feels a bright­en­ing spir­it and reflects on the con­nec­tion with the girl, iden­ti­fy­ing it as pro­found and sig­nif­i­cant. The chap­ter ends with a sense of long­ing and trans­for­ma­tion in both char­ac­ters, punc­tu­at­ed by Miles’s inter­nal reflec­tions on their encounter and the new­found hope she inspires with­in him.

San­dro, ini­tial­ly peev­ish about being called “sui­ci­dal,” offers com­ic relief while main­tain­ing pro­found loy­al­ty to Miles through­out their expe­ri­ences. This blend of humor and pathos under­scores the dynam­ics of human-ani­mal com­pan­ion­ship against the back­drop of Miles’s emo­tion­al unrav­el­ing and hope­ful rebirth. The chap­ter illus­trates themes of con­nec­tion, self-dis­cov­ery, and the bit­ter­sweet nature of famil­ial rela­tion­ships.