Ted awakens from a vivid nightmare of a head being struck, harbor men standing silent outside Joar's house, and sirens at the friends' old crossroads. Louisa, excited to be near the sea, asks if they have arrived and whether Ted will finish the story; Ted declines, offering another story instead. As the train approaches Ted's hometown, he begins recalling the time when the artist painted their picture in Ted's basement.

Ted remembers fetching food while the artist, self-taught and relentless, experimented with paints in the basement, joined by Ali and Joar. Upstairs, Ted shared a quiet moment with his older brother at the piano. They split their father's last beer, traded family stories, and Ted reassured his brother that he would be a good father. His brother, emotional, praised Ted's intelligence and potential to become a teacher, recalling their father's pride. When Ali nervously slipped upstairs for lasagna and fled upon seeing the brother, he simply said he was glad Ted had good friends and gently asked if Ted was dating any of them, which Ted cherished as acceptance.

They spoke about futures: Ted admitted his friends thought he should be a teacher, and his brother said that would help him imagine having children who could look up to Ted. Ted told his brother, for the first time, that he was enough. A narrator aside revealed that months later Ted's brother would avoid a disastrous party with the Ox, thereby escaping prison and eventually finding love, all perhaps influenced by knowing he was enough.

Returning to the basement that night, Ted found Ali and Joar transfixed: the artist had finished the painting. The canvas showed three teens—Joar, Ali, and Ted—on a pier amid vast blue. When urged to sign it, the artist refused to use his real name, instead writing an alias, C. Jat, built from the initials of Christian, Joar, Ali, and Ted. He said he had painted himself as the surrounding world. Joar said “I love you,” the artist reciprocated, and Ali stumbled through her own affirmation; Ted was struck speechless by the painting’s power.

Ted then told Louisa about Joar’s plan to steal his father’s car. With his mother at work and his alcoholic father away, Joar took the keys from the kitchen jar, as his mother always did. He drove the friends despite being only fifteen, with Ali and the artist protesting and Ted nervously suggesting they stop. Their banter turned to practical worries—police and dogs—and then to humor and shared memories as they continued.

Joar stopped outside a large white museum and promised the artist that his painting would one day hang there with Champagne and applause. The artist said Joar would be there too, and Joar agreed. Ted, now on the train, fell silent, recognizing the town and understanding that home was the people he had lost. He withheld from Louisa that all of them suspected Joar would not be there in the future and that Joar was carrying and checking a hidden knife, with August—his father’s vacation—imminent and dangerous.

Ted added that as they sat at the museum, Ali declared the heist was not Joar's worst idea and held Joar’s hand, revealing to Ted that Ali and Joar had kissed. Ted hoped they would grow old together. The train arrived, and Ted and Louisa stepped onto the platform with the suitcase and the boxed painting.