Hai digs Grazina’s long-forgotten electric scooter out of the screen porch, cleans it, and gets it working. Delighted, Grazina treats the scooter like a real car, and the two spend a cold Sunday riding slowly through East Gladness while Grazina identifies the ruined houses, the families who lived there, and the deaths and migrations she remembers. The outing shows Grazina briefly energized by memory and gives Hai another way to share her world.

The next day at HomeMarket, Hai makes Fluffernutter sandwiches for the staff after lunch. During the lull, a customer from the nearby Nissan dealership loudly complains that a homeless regular called Cookie smells bad and should be expelled because he is paying. BJ tries to calm him and protect Cookie, who responds in a flat voice that she has endured worse than being yelled at, and the man leaves in disgust.

While the staff gathers to eat, Cookie locks herself in the bathroom and overdoses. When the door is opened, the workers find her unconscious with a rig nearby and a cord tied around her arm. BJ calls 911, and Wayne and Hai drag Cookie into the hall for the medics, but Wayne accidentally pulls a bucket of cheese sauce onto all of them, forcing him to clear the sauce from Cookie’s mouth while the crisis worsens. Firefighters arrive quickly, revive Cookie with multiple doses of Narcan, and take her away struggling on the stretcher. The absurd mess does not erase the horror of the overdose, and the episode leaves Hai rattled and craving codeine.

Outside, Sony joins Hai, mentions seeing Hai’s mother at CVS, and learns that Hai is lying to his family about being in Boston. The cousins share a small act of comfort when Sony traces the word okay on both of Hai’s cheeks, prompting Hai to remember a childhood moment when he failed to protect Sony from bullies. That night, while Grazina combs hardened cheese from Hai’s hair and talks about food and American abundance, Hai asks about her brother, but Grazina avoids the subject. Instead, she reveals a Nutella cake she baked earlier and surprises Hai by remembering his birthday from the note on the calendar. The chapter ends with Hai moved by the gesture as he turns twenty.