Summary

Tom Aberant, narrating this chapter of the novel in first-person, explains that by allowing a divorce with Anabel on the grounds of abandonment, he is allowed to keep the apartment in Harlem while Anabel goes to live in New Jersey. Anabel continually calls Tom, trying to coax him into asking her to do something together. Tom eventually consents to asking Anabel to go on a hike where she leads him to a clearing to have sex.

The chapter jumps back to 1954. Clelia is 20, works at a bakery, and dreams of marrying a man who will get her out of Jena, East Germany for good. When this doesn’t happen, Clelia sneaks in West Berlin. While straying into a bad neighborhood, she encounters American Chuck Aberant of Denver, Colorado, who escorts her out. Chuck, who has two little girls from a...