- Deborah spends the next couple of months drawing and using her art as a kind of therapy.
- Deborah continues to sing in church choirs and wonders to herself one Sunday if people thank God for their mental health.
- Deborah starts to want to connect with people more, and she even wants to get a job. But she's told she'll have to get a high school diploma first.
- Deborah is now nineteen, and the thought of going back to high school is frightening to her. She remembers how broken she felt when she was in high school, and she doesn't think she can handle that atmosphere and all its social pressures.
- Deborah takes a walk to look at the high school in the town. Just looking at it makes her panic and think of all the darker parts of Yr.
- The social worker at the hospital suggests Deborah make a list of her skills and of what kinds of jobs line up with those skills. As she makes the list, Deborah is scared of her lack of choices in the world. She sees the future as a long hallway full of closed doors.
- The social worker then proposes another alternative to Deborah: the GED exam.
- Deborah is so relieved that she has another choice that she turns white and feels like she has the bends from the change in pressure between worlds—she's still making transitions between Yr and Earth.
- Yr starts fading, and Deborah can't understand Yri language as clearly as she did before. The transitions between worlds—not to mention the relief Deborah feels at knowing she could take a test instead of attending high school—causes a kind of panic attack that lands her in back D ward in a cold-sheet pack.
- Deborah understands now why Carla and Doris Rivera were exhausted from trying to live in the world. It's hard to transition.
- Quentin Dobshansky attends to Deborah in the pack, and she tells him to relax and not pretend with his face.
- When Quentin relaxes, Deborah can tell he's disappointed. He admits that he is indeed disappointed. He wants to see her be successful in the outside world.
- Quentin feels anxious because he's being so open and honest and friendly with a patient, but he feels something for her, even empathizes with her, because he's been made fun of, too.
- Deborah realizes she has a crush on Quentin. She feels she's ugly, and it's embarrassing to her to have Quentin see her in the pack.
- Lactamaeon calls to Deborah and tells her she should just "re-die" and have everything go back to the way it was with her in Yr.
- Deborah answers that she doesn't know how to do that anymore.
- Deborah tries to burn herself again to release the pressure, but this time it hurts, and she can't do it.
- Deborah cries out to all the gods of all the worlds, including Earth and Yr, that she is beginning to feel connected to Earth.
- Deborah tells Dr. Fried that she felt pain when trying to burn herself.
- Deborah also tells Dr. Fried that she still isn't completely ready to stop going between Yr and Earth, although she does know that she sides with the world.
- While she's still talking with Dr. Fried, Deborah retreats for a few moments into Yr, and Anterrabae tries to convince her that she will never be able to share as deeply with anyone as she did with the gods of Yr.
- Deborah decides to go back into the world again soon, when she feels ready.