The chapter opens with a flashback to a time when the Governess and her son were playing hide-and-seek in the woods. The Governess tells the story of how she hid in her son's bedroom to avoid being discovered. She tells the boy that she was planning to sneak out when she had the chance, but that she didn't realize that her daughter-in-law would be there. She says that she should have turned off the "nanny technique" , but she doesn't know how to do it. She asks her son if he wants to talk to her, and he says he does, but he's not going to respond to her. He tells her to get out of his room, and she says she'll just have to "suck up and leave" . She's going to "hell together" with her son, she says, and that's why she's hiding in the bedroom. She thinks that it's a good thing that her son is hiding in his bedroom, because he'll be mad if she finds him in there. He says that he was once the president of a "drama club" in high school, so he knows how to hide in the closet. He asks his son what the "ninja technique" was, and the boy says it was to hide under his bed. He then tells his mom that he'd like to go out and sneak out of the house.