- Despite some heavy medications, solitude, and therapy, Deborah still has an enormous meltdown that feels like the eruption of the volcano of her inner self. She is alone in the bathroom when the darkness of Yr descends, and she starts beating her head against the tiles of the floor until she sees red.
- Deborah writes Yri words all over the bathroom in her own blood. She can't speak English to communicate with the attendants or nurses when they come, just Yri words that are full of hate.
- Mrs. Forbes, a compassionate nurse, figures out the Yri word for anger that Deborah keeps repeating. Mrs. Forbes takes her to seclusion and then to a cold-sheet pack.
- Alone in the pack, Deborah still sees herself as an enemy and fears letting go of Yr. After all, Yr defined her in all her younger years of confusion. She feels like she'll always be dying but not actually dead.
- During a therapy session with Dr. Fried, Deborah hallucinates that the walls are bleeding and that a tumor is lodged in the ceiling.
- Deborah can't speak except to say, "Yri… in the world…collision" (21.21).
- Dr. Fried talks Deborah through this collision. She helps Deborah see that before she was angry at her for going away, she trusted her with her secrets and showed great potential for health. The doctor also commends Deborah for anticipating the collision and getting herself in D ward—that way she could fall apart when a nurse she could trust was on duty. Dr. Fried sees all of these things as signs that Deborah is smart and trying to take care of herself.
- After the talk with the doctor, Deborah isn't scared anymore.
- Dr. Fried explains that part of Deborah's fear is about having another eruption and not being able to stop it.
- When Deborah returns to D ward, Lee Miller tells her that Miss Coral threw a bed at Mrs. Forbes with such force that the nurse is in another hospital for physical injuries with bruises and a broken arm.
- Deborah decides after this incident that Lee, like Carla, is her friend, but she doesn't use the actual word "friend"—it's still too scary.
- Deborah listens in on the nurses to see if she hears news of how Mrs. Forbes is doing. She also wants to know why Miss Coral would want to hurt such a sweet nurse.
- Deborah hears that the nurses will go visit Mrs. Forbes, but then she hears them talking about her, her epic meltdown, the blood on the walls, and her anger.
- Deborah knows that her ward-mates won't talk about Mrs. Forbes and Miss Coral. It's like a code of honor among the patients not to question these things.
- Deborah feels confused about it all. She expresses that the only clarity she has is with Dr. Fried, so at least she still trusts her therapist.
- In the next session, however, Deborah announces that she is quitting her fight against her crazy and will instead just exist in the hospital and be docile and not have any more rages.
- Dr. Fried challenges Deborah on that point and doesn't pity her. She tells Deborah it will be hard, and she will be tested in the real world. That's a chance she'll have to take. Dr. Fried then asks her if she is getting sicker, and Deborah says no, she's not.
- Later, at a meeting, the ward staff discusses Deborah's status and remark about how she's not burning herself as much. A newer staff member questions whether the mentally ill have morals, and Dr. Fried says that of course they do. She then relays how one of her former patients gave her a knife he had made in secret in order to take his own life if his illness ever got to be too difficult to bear.
- Dr. Halle and Dr. Royson discuss Dr. Fried after she leaves the meeting. They both comment on how she is brilliant.