This chapter begins with a discussion of the power of a still image upon a wall, referring to the final picture that six did upon the mural. Her final image was bigger than any that had come before it, taking up not only all the remaining white space around the previous pictures, but all the rest of the walls in the space: “What they made was a portrait” (295).This portrait, however, was only a swath of a much larger image that would have been the size of the Charter house itself, were it to be completed.

Fan left the house with Dr. Upendra on the day five and four nearly died. Miss Cathy did not say a thing to stop her, unable to even look in her direction. Fan boldly asked whether it would be all right for her to stay with the doctor for the night, since she had nowhere else to go. The doctor, it turned out, had a girlfriend named Ludmilla that he very rarely got to spend any physical time with. Because he had a large home that rarely saw company, including that of his girlfriend, he had no issue with Fan staying as his guest.