Summary

In pages 194 - 242, the narrator returns home before Lan dies. He, Rose, and Mai lie on the floor with her. Lan is delirious and in pain. After her diagnosis, the doctors give her two weeks to live. Rose and Mai do everything they can to make her comfortable though there is nothing they can do to save her. The narrator believes this is an innate human tendency.

He thinks about the first time he and Trevor had sex, how painful it was. When his bowels loosened during intercourse, the narrator was mortified, feeling he had failed Trevor. Trevor insisted they get in the water afterwards. He told the narrator he did not need to be ashamed, assuring him with his body. It was the one time the narrator felt he was capable of being good, that Trevor allowed him to see this.

After...