- This chapter details "the next week and a half" of Neil's summer. He mostly only sees Brenda and the young boy at the library.
- The boy is there in the morning waiting for Neil when the library opens. He looks at the Gauguin book all day and then leaves when Neil leaves.
- One day the boy doesn't show up, but a white man comes in looking for the same Gauguin book the boy loves. He wants to check it out.
- Neil lies and tells him that the book is on hold, and that they will let the man know when it becomes available again.
- When the boy comes to the library that afternoon, his book is waiting for him.
- Neil sees Brenda every night.
- Whenever they can, they "make love" (4.10) in the living room in front of the muted television set.
- One night they go to the country club and are the only ones in the pool.
- When the pool lights go off and the club seems to be shutting down, Neil gets nervous and thinks they should leave.
- Brenda asks Neil where his parents are. He thinks this is the very first time she's asked him any questions about himself.
- He tells her his parents moved to Tucson, hoping the warm climate would help with their asthma. Apparently, Brenda's mother wanted to know. Brenda asks why he didn't go to Tucson with them, and why he's staying at his aunt's house.
- He explains that his aunt house's is close to his work, and that it makes his parents happy to have him stay there instead of alone. Having to explain irritates him and he tells Brenda so.
- She wants to know (for her father) about his job at the library.
- Neil explains that he got it after he was in the army and after college. Cousin Doris's dad got him the job. He is twenty-three and has a degree in philosophy.
- When asked if he wants a career at the library, he tells her he's "not a planner" (4.51).
- Brenda asks if he loves her.
- When he doesn't answer, she says she'll have sex with him either way.
- Neil thinks it's a "crude" (4.60) way to think about him.
- She asks him again if he loves her. He says he doesn't.
- Brenda replies that when he does love her everything will be OK.
- He says he will love her then, and she says she knows he will.
- Now Brenda suggests they play a game where one of them goes underwater, while the other one closes their eyes and waits. Then the wet person surprises the person with the eyes closed.
- (Those wacky kids!)
- Neil goes in the water first, but doesn't stay long because he's nervous that Brenda has run away from him.
- Now it's Brenda's turn to "hide."
- Almost immediately, Neil starts calling her name. He holds onto her glasses and calls her again.
- She comes out and they hug, but she tells him it's against the rules to call out.
- This time Neil plays fair and waits underwater as long as he can.
- Finally, he surfaces to find Brenda. He's afraid she's left again and wishes he had kept her glasses with him, so she couldn't walk home alone.
- He wants to call for her, but knows better. He swims laps.
- When he finds her, he holds her really tight.
- She wants to play again. He protests, but she doesn't listen.
- It seems like she's gone forever.
- When she finally comes back, Neil says he loves her.
- Neil and Brenda are seeing each other every night. They swim, take walks, go for drives in the mountains, and eat lots and lots and lots of fruit.
- Upon Ron's return from Milwaukee, they go to some of his basketball games.
- These are not Neil's favorite times. Brenda knows all of Ron's teammates including one very polite guy named Luther Ferrari.
- He and Brenda dated for a year and he calls her "Buck," a nickname from when she won ribbons with her horse. He's really nice to Brenda and Neil.
- Soon, Neil protests whenever there's a game.
- Somehow Brenda and Neil discover that at the nearby drive-in, you can watch the final quarter of the movie for free because the cashier leaves for the night and the manager takes a snooze.
- The couple has lots of fun imagining the beginnings of the fifteen movies they see this way.
- When they go out they occasionally run into friends.
- One night they dance together all night.
- Their evenings usually end with Neil and Brenda eating fruit and having sex, before Neil drives home to Newark.
- Nobody in the Patimkin family seemed to have any issues with Neil being around, even though Julie was less warm toward him than before.
- Brenda wants Neil to stay at her place when he goes on vacation for a week in August.
- She asks her dad for permission, so her mom can't stop it from happening.
- Aunt Gladys gets upset with Neil, when he's packing to leave.
- She asks if they have room for him to stay for that long; he replies that "they don't live over a store" (4.91).
- Aunt Gladys says she used to live over a store and that it's totally respectable. Then she asks Neil if he's been hungry or unhappy at her house.
- He assures her that he's "just taking a vacation" (4.95).
- He comforts her and she asks for the phone number and address.
- When he tells her they live in Short Hills, she can't believe that any "real Jewish people" (4.102) live there.
- When he gets to work, he learns he's been promoted to the position previously held by the woman who fell and broke her hip.
- The man who wants to check out the Gauguin book comes in and asks, politely, if it's available yet.
- Neil tells him it isn't, more rudely than he intends, and the man gets upset and stalks away.
- When the boy comes in after lunch, Neil asks him what he's reading today.
- The boy tells him he's still reading the Gauguin and says he hasn't done anything wrong.
- Neil suggests he take the book to his house and asks if he has a library card.
- The boy says he didn't take anything from the library.
- Neil asks if he goes to school.
- He says yes, telling Neil that it's summer, and he is supposed to be out of school.
- Neil says he knows, and tells the boy he wants him to check the book out.
- The boy wants to know why Neil wants him to take the book home. He says it might be torn up if he takes it home.
- He thinks Neil is trying to keep him from coming to the library.
- Neil says he's not trying to keep him out, and explains he's worried somebody else will check out the Gauguin.
- The boy smiles and tells him not to fret; he points out that nobody has taken it yet.
- On the way to Brenda's, Neil worries about the library. He's afraid that while he's on vacation the man will come to the library, take the book, and then tell what happened. Neil worries that this will cause his promotion to be taken back.
- He tells himself not to worry, reminding himself that he wants a life outside the library.