A week after the assault, Chona drifts into brief consciousness in her hospital bed, hearing the prayer Barukh She’amar in her mind and sensing Moshe’s presence. She feels an overwhelming thirst and receives water, then is struck by a vivid, shame-tinged sensation: the smell of something trefah—a hot dog—which triggers a half-formed memory before sharp abdominal pain tears it away.

Chona opens her eyes to find Moshe asleep beside her, holding her hand, and she silently reckons with guilt over his exhaustion and the sacrifices he has made. Waves of pain return, and Chona weakly tells Moshe to “throw that thing out,” meaning the imagined hot dog smell. Moshe wakes and looks around in confusion as Chona realizes several people are gathered: Isaac, Rabbi Feldman, Irv and Marv Skrupskelis, Addie, Nate, and Bernice; Chona asks where Dodo is, and Moshe promises they will get Dodo back.

Chona tries to joke with Bernice about eating a hot dog, but the effort of speaking intensifies Chona’s pain; Moshe translates because Chona has spoken in Yiddish. Bernice, shaken but present, answers softly that she has not had a hot dog. Rabbi Feldman begins chanting a healing prayer, and Moshe, taking control, orders everyone to leave so he and Chona can be alone.

Outside in the hallway, the group stands awkwardly with no place to go. Isaac questions the Skrupskelis twins about whether Chona’s father built the synagogue alone and presses them about the illegal water connection; Marv says a Black man named Shad helped build it and would know the pipe’s location, but Shad is dead, and Bernice’s brother might know. Isaac declares he will see the water issue repaired, while Marv warns that “Doc Roberts” is a separate problem; Isaac coldly denies knowing that name and dismisses Rabbi Feldman’s claimed letter.

The conversation stops when Moshe’s piercing howl echoes down the corridor, drawing the group toward Chona’s room as Addie rushes inside. The chapter ends with the group moving slowly toward the sound, with Moshe’s sobs implying Chona has died and leaving the community facing grief, Dodo’s unresolved absence, and the dangerous conflicts still surrounding the shul and Doc Roberts.