Spring arrives, and Suzy graduates from grammar school, but her parents cannot help thinking of Deborah. Doris leaves the facility once again, filling the patients with resentment. Fights break out amongst the patients for a while, and many of the new medical students are scared away. One afternoon, Deborah hears two students laughing about a patient coming up from B ward, and the patient turns out to be Carla. Deborah allows Carla time to establish herself and come out of whatever darkness she was in before approaching her. Shockingly, Carla appears to Deborah in color; she has seen in gray for months. It takes time for the two to become friendly again, but Carla explains that she felt exhausted. Deborah asks Yr, “Why do they think they can float like others when the surface tension of their nganons was broken by the first drowning?” (159), and Lactamaeon answers that Carla is not poisonous like Deborah and has a chance at a normal life. He warns Deborah that she will end up killing Carla as a result, and Deborah disconnects from herself.

Dr. Fried explains a piece of petrified wood on her desk, a gift from her father.