In May 2004, Cassie and Birdie continue moving into Bobby’s house. While unpacking, Cassie remembers the day her husband, Henry, was killed 14 months earlier when a semi-truck ran a red light. Birdie, who was in the car, survived but was left in a medically induced coma. Since waking, she has been experiencing selective mutism, a condition doctors attribute to psychological trauma. 

Later, Bobby comforts a crying Cassie and suggests she try to communicate with Henry’s spirit for closure, explaining it was a custom in their home country. When Cassie asks if the practice ever worked for her, Bobby grows distant, says, “Not anymore,” and leaves the room after quoting a Ukrainian phrase from her father: “Just make it through today, and hope tomorrow will be better” (62).

In a Ukrainian village in May 1930, Katya attends a gathering where she is treated as an adult for the first time. The conversation turns to Soviet collectivization. A man named Tomas delivers a passionate speech denouncing Stalin, the OGPU secret police, and the branding of dissenters as kulaks. He urges his neighbors to resist and, if forced to join the collective farms, to destroy their livestock and tools.