Louisa regains consciousness behind the church after colliding with a homeless man while fleeing a guard. The man hushes her and misdirects the pursuing guard. When the guard leaves, Louisa sees the man’s ginger cat, notices their heads collided, and apologizes. They share a cautious, touch-averse rapport as Louisa’s spilled backpack exposes her meager possessions, triggering a wave of grief and shame.

Louisa insists she did not steal or vandalize anything, explaining she came only to see the painting The One of the Sea. Overwhelmed, she curses and then sobs, confessing that her best friend Fish died and that she ran away from foster care to avoid being sent back before her eighteenth birthday, which is the next day. She describes adults dismissing Fish as crazy and dangerous and declares Fish was her person, whose loss no one seems to mourn.

The homeless man gently wishes her a happy birthday after reading her passport and speaks in a soft, labored voice that suggests illness. Louisa offers a postcard of the painting and explains her belief that the artist’s work is filled with pain and happiness and that the three boys on the pier are present throughout his paintings. She gives the man the postcard and admits she envies the artist’s fame and security.

They share cigarettes without a lighter and exchange jokes about the man’s shaking hands, which he says cost him his job as a “tambourine thief.” Their laughter breaks Louisa’s grief for the first time since Fish’s death. Louisa asks if he is ill and dying; he nods without self-pity and tells her, “Life is long,” offering a quiet counterpoint to her despair.

Louisa says she wants to try to be alive, despite Fish’s inability to endure. As she prepares to leave, the man invites her to paint on the back wall of the church. She uses nearly all her spray paint to create hearts, pain-free fish, beautiful cockroaches (reclaiming an insult), and jellyfish dressed as guards, which delights the man.

With trembling hands, the man takes a can and adds skulls to the wall. Louisa, deeply moved, recognizes the motif that also surrounds the artist’s signature in the famous painting, linking the man to that imagery and sealing their moment of connection.