- A house is a house. Their tiny new home is filled with improvised furniture. Stephen and Naomi sleep on bunk beds, and Obasan shares a room with Nomura-obasan, an older woman. She uses a bedpan, and normally Obasan helps her go to the bathroom, but one day Obasan is out. So Nomura-obasan asks Naomi for help, but since she can't find the bedpan, Naomi takes her to the outhouse.
- When Obasan sees them like this, she drops everything. She carries Nomura-obasan home on her shoulders. Meanwhile, Stephen is busy playing his mother's favorite songs over and over again on an antique record player. He doesn't even try to help.
- In one of Stephen's books, Naomi learns the story of Goldilocks. Maybe Naomi's really Goldilocks. Maybe she'll find her way home. But no matter how much she wants to go home, they never go back. And the old man never did find her doll.