Summary

At the hospital, the doctors perform a number of tests on Bernice. Dove finally shows up, panicked and overly optimistic, still wearing his head phones that are blaring loud music. Bernice asks if he will find a song that has the same beat as her pulse, and Silas notes that Dove thinks Bernice is serious. Silas explains that he was ignored when he asked to see a black doctor, but Dove and Bernice do not pay attention to him. They hold each other's hands and whisper back and forth. Dove gives Bernice two cards and she reads the text of one of them aloud. Silas is embarrassed by Dove's attempts to be supportive.

Their mother arrives in New York. At the hospital, she challenges everything the doctors say, but Bernice is eventually discharged. That same week, she suffers a massive stroke, and returns to...