While walking to a meeting at Pantem Press in Manhattan, Lowen watches a distracted pedestrian step into traffic and get killed by a truck. She is close enough to hear the impact and is splattered with the man’s blood, which leaves her shaken, nauseated, and unable to continue directly to her appointment. As the city moves around the accident with disturbing indifference, Lowen reflects on why she came to New York: to disappear inside a place too crowded to care about her pain.

A stranger notices Lowen’s condition and asks if she is hurt. When Lowen realizes blood is on her face and shirt, the man guides her into a nearby coffee shop and into the men’s restroom because the women’s room is occupied. He helps her clean off the blood, locks the door to protect her privacy while she removes her ruined shirt, and then gives her his own dress shirt to wear.

Once Lowen regains some composure, the two speak more personally. The man introduces himself as Jeremy and says he has seen worse than the accident, then reveals that five months earlier he pulled his eight-year-old daughter’s body out of a lake. In response, Lowen admits that her mother died of cancer the previous week after Lowen spent a year caring for her in her apartment, and that this is her first time leaving home in weeks.

The exchange creates a brief sense of connection between them, shaped by grief rather than comfort. Lowen notices Jeremy’s sadness and is drawn to his kindness, but she also sees his wedding ring, which immediately sets a boundary around her interest. Their conversation ends without resolution when Jeremy says he has to leave for a meeting and asks if she will be alright.

After Jeremy leaves, Lowen returns to the accident scene and gives a statement to the police, though she did not actually see the moment of impact. She then notices Jeremy crossing the street with a fresh coffee, already mentally elsewhere. Still shaken and with fifteen minutes left before her meeting with Corey and a Pantem Press editor, Lowen considers getting coffee and thinks bitterly that morphine would help more, revealing how raw her grief and exhaustion still are.