Mam visits her friend Roy, whom she met when she was in middle school. He now has an office in the basement of Teachers College at Columbia. She’s one of the students from Liberia with whom he’s kept in touch. He is a white man “with an unlikely Liberian accent” (200). After exchanging pleasantries and updating him on the condition of Gus, Jr., Mam announces that she’s returning to Liberia. Roy warns her against it, reminding her of the danger. Mam tells him that Facia has a friend whom she can stay with in Sierra Leone while she tries to get to Lai.

Roy asks Mam to describe her plan. She says that she’ll leave in a month. She’ll meet Facia’s friend in Freetown, take a bus to the border, rent a room, and then send word into Lai that she’s nearby. She figures that the family can spend a day walking to the border town and meet her there. Roy asks what she’ll do if she can’t find anyone willing to go into Liberia to send word. In that instance, Mam says, she’ll go into the country herself. She’d find a way to cross the border. She tells him that she’s made up her mind and will need to get a sponsorship letter to present to the embassy in Freetown.