Summary

In present tense, Tish’s narration describes Fonny working on a carving, in “soft, brown wood … a bust of me. The wall is covered with sketches. I am not there” (177). Fonny struggles to hear the voice of the wood guiding him, and struggles to see the shape of Tish within. Eventually, he does, and he starts to carve …

… and then he wakes up.

Tish’s narration describes Fonny’s fear and anxiety in prison – how he feels himself losing himself, and how he thinks he would know what to say to the men with whom he is imprisoned if he saw them on the streets, but how he does not know what to say to them in prison. He smokes one of his few cigarettes, and finds himself reluctantly aroused sexually. He masturbates, weeping as he ejaculates.

Later that...