Part 4 Summary

Jesse wants to stop at the Lakeside Bar. Sissie sees that it is the same, but seems smaller, dirtier. She thinks about how she hasn't been back there in years. There is a custard stand nearby that didn't used to be there. Jesse caresses Sissie's arm. She feels ugly and heavy in her cheap maternity dress. She reluctantly agrees, saying that her father used to drink here too.

As the pair approaches the tavern, Sissie wonders why the place feels so ugly to her, fear welling up inside her, pushing out her breath. She glances at her reflection in the window and thinks about how she is grown now and how the young girls probably look at her in awe, memorizing the way she moves through the world. She thinks about how her mother is proud of her for being pretty and is...