- Clarissa exits the florist's with the flowers for her party. She heads towards the film set where the "famous head" had emerged and stands there with the small crowd that has gathered to watch the goings-on.
- Clarissa waits for almost ten minutes before walking away again, having failed to catch a second glimpse of the movie star (whoever she may have been).
- Rather than turn back toward home, Clarissa heads uptown toward Richard's apartment, where she plans to stop in for a few minutes to check on him.
- As she walks, Clarissa thinks about the ending of the summer romance that she and Richard shared when they were eighteen and nineteen, respectively. They ended things in this very neighborhood, and she muses on the changes that the neighborhood has seen since then.
- When she reaches Richard's building, Clarissa lets herself in and tries to take the elevator up to his floor. When it doesn't work, she takes the stairs instead, feeling relieved to have a good reason not to trust her life to the run-down machine.
- Upstairs, Clarissa knocks and lets herself in to Richard's cluttered and dimly lit apartment. She can hear Richard talking to himself, and when she heads in she finds him sitting alone in his favorite chair.
- Clarissa opens a window to let in more light, then asks Richard whether "they" are with him today—"they" being the unearthly beings that Richard claims to be able to see and hear.
- Richard says no.
- When Clarissa reminds Richard about the party and awards ceremony that night, he seems confused. Specifically, he tells Clarissa that he thought these events had already happened. As he says, he seems to have "fallen out of time" (4.71).
- As Clarissa tries to put him right, Richard confesses that he's nervous about the party. He says he doesn't want to have to be "proud and brave in front of everybody"—especially when, in his opinion, he's only getting the prize "for having AIDS and going nuts" (4.83-85).
- Clarissa tries to convince him that this isn't true, and that he's getting the prize for his talent, not for his suffering.
- Eventually, she talks Richard into taking a nap. As she gets ready to leave, she promises to come back later that afternoon to help him get dressed.