Summary

Cora visits the burned-out remains of Troy’s house. She walks to the lake and encounters two men fishing in a canoe, who chide her from drinking its water. She tells them that she is “the child of earth and starry heaven” (221), and they paddle away, seemingly disturbed. She gets in her Jeep and drives east through the desolate city. She stops to feed a wounded stray dog and wraps its injured leg with her bandanna, but the dog declines to jump into her Jeep. Cora drives out of New Orleans toward an unspecified destination.

Meanwhile, Tess goes to the Boisdoré house to look for Cora. She takes inventory of the spreading damage, then encounters Joe, who seemingly has also come to look for his daughter. They go to Cora’s house together and discover that Cora’s Jeep is missing. Tess accuses...