- They go all the way to Lauderdale, which is in Mississippi—where both Mam and Ara T came from. Victor walks down the streets and stares at everything; it all seems so foreign to him.
- As they walk along, they come across Ara T's cart sitting outside a building. Mam stares at it and then decides that Victor is going to hide inside the cart while she goes inside and takes care of business.
- Victor is hesitant, but Mam makes him promise that he'll listen to her because this could be dangerous. Finally, he climbs inside the smelly old cart even though it's gross.
- Victor sits in the cart and silently counts to himself as he waits for Mam to come back. He's having a hard time staying still, though, and decides that he's going to have to break the rules—he really wants to see how Mam is doing.
- Victor goes inside the building and sneaks through a narrow hallway. Everything is dimly lit and he goes into a room with other people. He sees an empty table in the middle with his stuff on it.
- Everyone in the room is way too busy staring at Ara T, though, as he holds Mam up against the wall by her neck. She's dangling off the ground and trying really hard to kick him… but she's having trouble.
- A man tries to stop Ara T but Ara T hits him over the head with a chair and the man backs off. Ara T starts yelling about how he's going to kill Mam just like he killed her brother.
- That's when Victor grabs a bottle with a long neck and throws it at Ara T's head. It hits him just on top of the head before hitting the ceiling and breaking into pieces.
- Ara T drops Mam and she slides down from the wall. Then he starts toward Victor and says that he's going to break the white boy's neck. Uh-oh…
- He grabs Victor and closes his hands around his neck. Victor tries to kick him, but Ara T is way too strong.
- Over Ara T's shoulder, Victor can see Mam getting up. She grabs something out of Ara T's coat and comes toward them—she has Victor's yellow-handle knife in her hands.
- Before Ara T can turn around, she rushes in and stabs him right in the arm. He immediately lets go of Victor and Mam stabs him in the other arm, all the way to the handle.
- That's when Big Sack shows up and tells Ara T that it's over. Ara T tries to hit him, but Big Sack grabs his arm and twists it until Ara T falls to the floor.
- Big Sack grabs a bottle of gin and cleans Ara T's arms with it before bandaging them up. He says they'll take him to get some stitches.
- Mam says that she had a right to stab him, and Big Sack agrees, but he also says that she and Victor should probably leave now.
- They quickly gather up all of Victor's belongings and head out; Victor even manages to find his newspaper bags that went missing.
- As they leave, Big Sack tells Victor that Ara T won't bother him again—and Victor knows that he'll keep that promise.
- On the bus ride home, Victor realizes that he missed out on his meeting with Mr. Spiro before he left. He'll never know what the fourth word on the dollar bill is now.