- As Mae leaves Longfield and heads back toward San Vincenzo, she stews over her argument with Mercer. She's convinced that he's wrong about absolutely everything and that he's nothing but a pathetic, wretched man.
- Mae is feeling so furious and frustrated that she decides to head toward her usual kayaking shop despite the fact that it's 10 p.m. and she knows the place will be closed.
- Mae has a vague idea that she might catch the owner, Marion, hanging around the shop and that Marion might let her take a kayak out onto the bay for half an hour or so.
- Mae finds the shop empty and closed up for the night, but as she gets ready to leave, she notices a freestanding kayak nearby. The kayak hasn't been locked up with the others, and Mae realizes that the person who rented it must have brought it back late, after the shop had closed.
- After a few moments of hesitation, Mae decides to "borrow" the kayak and take it out onto the bay.
- Once she gets out onto the water, Mae decides to head for Blue Island—a "strange, jagged, never visited" place where other kayakers rarely go (1.41.12).
- Mae makes it to the island quickly, and once there, she decides to climb up to the peak there.
- The fact that she is completely alone, that no one knows where she is, and that no one but she will ever know that she has been there are thrilling to Mae, and she feels like she's on top of the world.
- At the peak of the island, Mae looks out contentedly at the magnificent view.
- As she holds on to a tree beside her, Mae notices a nest in its branches. She wants to look inside to see what's in there, but she knows that doing so might cause the death of whatever little creatures are inside. Wisely, she resists the urge to satisfy her curiosity.
- As Mae sits on the island and contemplates the living world around her, she finds it comforting to guess at the millions of life forms that may be doing their things beneath the waters of the bay. She knows that she doesn't really know that much about most of them, and, for some reason, she finds that thought deeply comforting.
- As Mae returns to the beach, she is confronted by police officers and put into the back of a squad car.
- Mae tells the officers that she's a member of the kayaking club, but rather than admitting to "borrowing" the unlocked kayak, she tells them that she's just late in returning a legitimate rental.
- The police officers call Marion, the owner of the shop, and Marion tells them that she'll be right down.
- When Marion arrives at the scene, she vouches for Mae and helps to ensure that no charges are laid.
- The next morning, Mae gets to work promptly and works energetically until she gets a message from Dan, who asks her to come to his office.
- Once she arrives, Dan makes it clear that the Circle knows all about Mae's little joyride the night before. Not only that, but they have digital footage of Mae stealing the kayak.
- After giving Mae a stern talking to, Dan tells her that her poor decision-making has created a "teachable moment" (1.43.50). As he informs her, Eamon Bailey himself has taken an interest in the event, and he wants to meet with Mae.
- After her meeting with Dan, Mae works nonstop for the rest of the afternoon, determined to prove "her commitment to the company" (1.44.1).
- In the early evening, after the workday is done, one of Eamon Bailey's assistants finds Mae at her desk and brings her up to Bailey's office in the secluded Ochre Library.
- Although Mae has been there before—Annie showed it to her on her first day at the Circle—Mae pretends that it's all new to her.
- Once Mae is sitting down with Eamon Bailey in his library, Bailey makes tea for the two of them as they start to chat.
- As Bailey begins to address Mae's theft of the kayak, he emphasizes a number of things: among them, the fact that Mae wouldn't have committed a crime like that if she had known that she was being watched, the fact that there is no earthly need for secrecy, and the fact that all people are entitled to have access to any information they could possibly want to know.
- As they talk, Bailey impresses Mae with his ideas, and he guides her into making a number of similar assertions herself. By the end of their meeting, he's convinced Mae that secrets are never justified, that privacy is unnecessary, and that the ultimate goal of the Circle itself should be to make all information absolutely accessible to everyone.
- Toward the end of their meeting, Bailey prompts Mae to admit that she has actually been in his office before.
- As Bailey tells Mae, the feeling of relief that she feels now that she's revealed her secret is the very same feeling that everyone would always feel if the Circle's technologies could compel them to be on their best behavior all the time.
- The Circle is going to make it possible for people to become their best selves, Bailey says. It's going to change the face of humanity for the better.
- One week later, Mae and Eamon Bailey deliver a Dream Friday presentation together.
- During the presentation, Bailey walks Mae through a number of predetermined points that echo the conversation they had in his office the week before.
- Before an audience of thousands of their fellow Circlers, Mae and Bailey make it clear that Mae's actions the previous week were unacceptable for more reasons than one.
- Not only were those actions illegal, but Mae's desire to have a solitary experience all by herself—to do something alone that no one else would ever know about—was itself a form of theft.
- As Bailey and Mae move through their points, Bailey encourages Mae to share three maxims that she "came up with herself" during their meeting together: 1) Secrets Are Lies, 2) Sharing Is Caring, and 3) Privacy Is Theft.
- Mae finds it overwhelming to think that she came up with such profound ideas on her own, and her fellow Circlers greet her testimony with loud, excited approval.
- Finally, at the end of the presentation, Eamon Bailey makes a final announcement.
- Mae has agreed to "go transparent" right away (1.45.129).