The narrator complains that he and his friend are living in a tiny apartment. He tells the narrator that his aunt, aurelia, died of a heart attack and that he hasn't heard from her since he was five years old. The narrator wonders why she put him in her will, but he doesn't know what to do with sasha. He and the friend decide to figure out a way to explain what they're up to to to her, but they can't bring themselves to tell her the whole story. They decide that they'll go to bedlam, and the narrator says, "she tires me out" . He says he was helping a lost kid when he left, and now he's helping a neighbor take care of the girl. He wants to adopt the girl, he says, but the girl's cousin ran away, so the neighbors are taking her in. They're going to get to know each other, and he says he'll be back soon.