Summary

The narrator woke up in the night to discover that Hanny had slipped away. He laid towels on the floor so the narrator would not hear him walking and left treats for Monro so he would not bark. The narrator biked on the tandem into the rain, convinced that Hanny had left to visit Else at Thessaly. He saw Hanny carrying the rifle and heading towards Thessaly, but they were separated by the incoming tide. He also saw a large tree that had explicably bloomed too early.

The narrator attempted to run on one of the pathways towards Hanny but was knocked into the sea. He swam through the freezing water, choking on it several times, and was beginning to drown when Hanny pulled him out by the rifle strap. The narrator, infuriated that Hanny snuck off without him and that they would not...