Summary

Chapter 3 opens with Aisha and Michael's mother chatting and drinking tea. We find out that Aisha is a freelance programmer who regularly travels the world. She wants to plan a get-together or memorial for Francis and says that it would help Michael's mother overcome her grief, but Michael is against the idea. The next day a neighbor boy knocks on the door to tell Michael that his mother is in the valley without shoes on. Michael and Aisha go looking for her and find her muddy and picking flowers at a spot by the creek where they used to sit when Francis was alive.

The narrative shifts to two days after the night of the shooting, which was also the night Francis left home. Michael put tin foil over the windows to reflect heat and his mother came home and lost her temper, smashing...