- Asher enters high school and finds out that the Rabbi wants him to study French, so he does. He gets increasingly chummy with Jacob Kahn, who's basically his dad at this point. They dance together during Simchat Torah, which is a big deal for Jacob Kahn, because he's sort of a lapsed Jew.
- Jacob Kahn has an art show at Anna Schaeffer's gallery, and in the show is a sculpture of two heads facing in the same direction: Jacob Kahn's and Asher's.
- A really rich patron buys the sculpture, and Asher is shocked and honored that he's been immortalized in the art world through this sculpture.
- Uncle Yitzchok, who is really rich and no longer mad at Asher for being so whiny about not wanting to go to Vienna, decides to help Asher turn the attic in his house into a giant art studio.
- Asher's parents come back from Vienna for the High Holidays and move into Uncle Yitzchok's house because they've sublet their old apartment. Asher paints in his attic all day and basically doesn't speak to his father at all.
- Rivkeh and Aryeh constantly fight about Asher's painting—Aryeh accuses Rivkeh of "indulging" him and Rivkeh tries to get him to see that their son's talent is just something they have to cope with. Tensions run incredibly high and nobody really does anything about it.
- Asher's parents go back to Vienna and guilt him into coming abroad to visit them for the holidays. He goes, but the trip is a disaster: he's really sick the whole time, and can barely have a coherent conversation with his parents about anything.
- He's much happier when he returns home, traveling with Jacob Kahn to see art exhibitions in the continental United States and painting up a storm in his uncle's attic.
- Eventually, Anna Schaeffer decides Asher has enough artwork lying around for a show, so she throws one together in her gallery. It opens to mixed, but mostly positive, reviews. Asher has a second show the following spring that does really well.
- He's becoming a Very Serious Artist. His parents move back from Vienna permanently and return to their old apartment. Asher lives with them, but continues to paint in his uncle's attic.