Summary

Chapters 4 and 5 cover Day 3 in the novel. When Chapter 4 begins, Frankie tried again to walk down the hallway unassisted. When she began to fail, she reached for the wall, and Stotts eased her to the floor. He sat with her, and Frankie explained that she had endometriosis and was recovering from surgery. Stotts offered to let her rest on the couch in his office, but she wanted to watch him work instead. She started to rise, but he tricked her into resting by asking about the birds she had researched.

Frankie had worked with zebra finches to study how females chose their mates. She had used hot glue to attach nylon fluff to the crests of some males. When reporters wrote about her work, they referred to the fluff as top hats. Stotts said that his specialty was archeology, particularly the development of tools...