- The next Monday, Mrs. Worthington is sitting outside on the porch again when Victor drops off the newspaper. She looks terribly sad.
- She asks if she owes for the paper and Victor feels badly for her (and doesn't want to stutter), so he says that it can wait until Friday. She just turns around and walks back into the house again.
- Back home, Victor learns that Mam has asked for the evening off and that the family is going to a sit-down restaurant, which is terrible news. He hates having to order a meal.
- It gets even worse when they run into his parents' friends at the restaurant and end up all sitting together—eight grown-ups and Victor.
- The worst part, though, is when they start asking him questions and he has to answer. When he orders, he says spaghetti, but it comes out funny and one of the women at the table starts to laugh.
- He starts to eat but feels nauseous—the smell of pasta, wine, cigarette smoke, and perfume wafting around him doesn't help—and then everything starts to spin and poor Victor vomits all over the table.
- After that, his parents take him home and Victor is miserable and silent in the back seat, thinking about how everyone else gets to be normal except for him. He also feels bad for ruining his parents' night when they should have been able to eat at a restaurant with their friends.
- He goes up to bed, but after a while decides to go back downstairs and tell his parents that he's sorry. But he stops when he overhears them talking about his stammering, with his mother saying that it might "generic."
- His father corrects her, saying that she means "genetic"—apparently she's always getting her words mixed up like this.
- Victor sneaks back upstairs and wonders why his mother was talking about how stammering doesn't run in her family… but his dad didn't say anything at all. He didn't even mention his family. Huh.
- When Victor goes downstairs the next morning, his mother tells him that he doesn't have to apologize; he just had a stomach bug. They both know this isn't true, though.
- She chats about the fair that's coming to town and how Victor should go with Rat; then he asks her where Mam is.
- She says that Mam called to say that she needs some more time off, and that they have to give it to her because she's been working so hard. Then Victor's mom gets into her car and leaves the house.
- Victor goes upstairs, but when he reaches his parents' bedroom he realizes that he's all alone at home—and that this means he can go snooping in their closet if he wants to. Boom.
- He roots around inside until he finds a big hatbox his mother keeps in the closet. It's full of papers, including his report cards and old photos.
- The final thing that he finds is his own birth certificate. Under "mother" is his mom's name, but under "father" they've written "unknown." Um… what's up with that?
- Victor gets all freaked out, so he puts all the papers back and goes into his room to mull over what he's just learned.