Summary

After returning home from the lab following her outburst, the narrator focuses on domestic chores. Eric, who has been told what happened by the lab secretary, gives her space. The narrator recalls meeting him in lab: he keeps asking to borrow things, then eventually asks her to lunch. She then thinks about her family's move to the United States when she is five. Her mother is unhappy and constantly on the phone with relatives in China. Her parents constantly fight about how much each of them have sacrificed, and her father breaks things in anger.

The narrator finds comfort in walking her dog in the park. She sees a flyer advertising tutoring jobs. A week of doing nothing but chores and thinking about how "Some people suffer externally" (35), the narrator applies and begins tutoring college students in science. Among the things she explains...