then
- When Bobby gets home from school, he finds a note from his mom telling him that something happened to Nia, so he runs to the hospital.
- In the waiting room, he cries and screams. His mom holds him and tells him to hold on.
- Nia's mom is holding Nia's favorite stuffed animal, but Bobby realizes that it's not for Nia's comfort; it's for her own.
- The doctors talk to Nia's parents, who are grieving; Nia had eclampsia and is in an irreversible vegetative coma.
- Bobby thinks he can't be a knight because he's not brave; he also thinks of a picture of Nia laughing that he carries with him, and of his friends who have come to the hospital to be with him.
- And then he meets Feather. Bobby thinks "she came to me so slow, and it was just like somebody brushed the air with a feather" (29.37).
- So Bobby refuses to give Feather up for adoption. Even when the social worker tries to talk to him, he tells the woman Feather's name and, while he admits he doesn't have any clue about being a father, he's going to do it anyway.
- As he takes on this responsibility, he thinks he sees Just Frank in the hall and that he's becoming a man.
- When he talks to Nia's parents, they tell him they'll support him. But Bobby suspects that they won't be around.
- He takes Feather home and realizes that he knows he needs to be Feather's father.