The chapter opens with a flashback to a dream in which a young woman named Chihiro is killed in a car accident. The narrator tells us that the dream was the first time she had ever dreamed of being a teacher, and that she wanted to teach because it was the dream she had had when she was a child. Chihiro's dream ended when the driver of the car she was driving fell asleep and threw her car into the street, but she survived and tried to make connections with the people in her life. She was constantly betrayed and hurt by the people around her. She wanted to be a teacher because she had the dream that she had stood up and walked forward toward the promised land. The core members of the community hated the idea, but the narrator says that he could have lived a life where he could sing with them, but life had a way of "splitting off in directions" that you never expect. He says he will make mistakes, but he will learn from them. He believes that someday, he will walk a path that leads to the land promised to him.