At Pennhurst, Dodo wakes in his crib to Monkey Pants urgently trying to communicate. Dodo, newly freed from his leg casts and forced into the ward’s daily march through the cafeteria and day room, is too drained to respond. Walking among the general population has intensified Dodo’s loneliness and fear: patients prey on one another, attendants enable the strong, and Dodo can barely keep food or a safe place to sit.

Dodo’s exhaustion turns into guilt. Dodo blames himself for small thefts from Chona’s store and for the attack that led to confinement, concluding that Chona was hurt because of him and that Nate and Addie have abandoned him. Monkey Pants tries to deny Dodo’s self-blame, but Dodo refuses to listen.

Monkey Pants then distracts Dodo by spelling out a game: touch my finger. The boys press index fingers through the crib bars and turn it into a long contest of endurance, talking and laughing as hours pass. They keep playing through dinner, soiling their beds and being ignored by attendants, until the ward goes dark for the night.

In the darkness, Son of Man approaches Dodo’s crib, silently pries space between the cribs, drops Dodo’s crib bars, and pins Dodo down. Son of Man covers Dodo’s mouth and face, forces Dodo onto his side, and begins an assault. Before Son of Man can continue, the floor shakes as Monkey Pants erupts into a massive seizure, waking the ward; Monkey Pants flings feces that splatters Son of Man and disrupts the attack.

Other attendants rush in, and a young white doctor arrives, notices the moved cribs and Dodo’s opened side rail, and questions Son of Man’s behavior. The doctor orders Monkey Pants cleaned and treated, insists the cribs be placed close again, and says Dodo should be moved to a bed in the morning. After Son of Man leaves, Dodo—terrified Son of Man will return—reaches into the dark until he finds Monkey Pants’s finger again, and falls asleep holding it. In the morning, Monkey Pants’s arm and finger remain extended through the crib slit, but Monkey Pants is gone.