The chapter opens with a soliloquy by the protagonist, who says that he is a "worthless failure" who is useless in the real world because he is unable to do anything useful when it matters. He says he will use this phrase to cheer up his friend, who is suffering from a rare form of Lou Gehrig's disease. The protagonist explains that the phrase means "one slice of cake" and that he has lost the ability to cook, sew, or write because of his illness. He adds that the only thing he can think of to cheer her up is to eat a piece of "cake." The protagonist says he has no idea how the astronauts decide who is assigned to a particular mission or when they are to be sent to the moon, but he does know that he would not have gone to space if it weren't for the fact that he received the lowest possible grade on the written test. He also says that if the test scores had been decided on the basis of how well he did on the test, he would have been assigned sooner or later. He explains that he will not be able to lift his friend up to show her the "as teroid" she has always been wanting to see, because she will be unable to speak or move her arms or legs. He asks if he is alone today, and she replies that all he is eating for lunch is for his "second stom" . She tells him that she taught him this phrase many years ago, and that she lied about it so that he wouldn't know what it meant. He tells her that he wants to erase the phrase from the world. The next morning, he receives an e-mail from his friend saying that he arrived safely in Japan. He plans to spend the next three or four years learning everything he can about the moon and the construction of the telescope.