Demon contrasts the boys at Mr. Crickson’s foster farm: Swap-Out is slow-witted, while Tommy is sharp but seems to choose misery and blame. Demon sees how Tommy survives by trying to avoid being hated, even when it costs him.

When the farm’s well runs dry, Mr. Crickson gathers the boys and rants about waste as a crime against a struggling farm. Because Tommy’s chore is “water,” Mr. Crickson assumes Tommy left the hydrant running and demands an explanation. Demon realizes the real culprit is Fast Forward, who used the hydrant to hose down his truck for Saturday-night cruising, but Fast Forward stays silent and lets Tommy take the punishment.

Mr. Crickson whips Tommy in front of the others, and Tommy refuses to blame Fast Forward. Later, Demon finds Tommy hiding among hay bales, drawing skeletons on a grain bag; Tommy says skeletons are easy to draw and feel like familiar “little buddies,” and Demon understands Tommy’s need to stay on people’s good side to survive foster care.

Between weekly visits with Demon, Mom works miserable retail shifts while recovering and dealing with pregnancy and Stoner’s lack of support. Meanwhile, the farm routine grinds on—cold mornings, too little food, endless labor—broken only by Friday-night football, where the county worships Lee High and Fast Forward’s stardom. Fast Forward sometimes trains Demon in throwing and receiving, feeding Demon’s ambition to become someone admired.

As fall tobacco work begins, Demon learns how brutal farm labor really is. During topping, Demon discovers Tommy carefully collecting the discarded pink tobacco flowers and placing them on two small dirt mounds at the field’s edge. That night Tommy explains the mounds are invented graves for his parents—because he has never seen their real graves, he creates new ones at each foster home, leaving a pair behind wherever he’s sent next.