On the afternoon of June 6, 2004, a young Roman is on the couch with Delia, the most beautiful girl he has ever known, watching American Idol. Both nervous, both pretending to be experienced, they edge closer until Roman impulsively kisses her. The encounter quickly escalates, and Roman senses something being unlocked inside him that will haunt him for years. The smell of her Vanilla Fields perfume will later become permanently nauseating to him.

The moment is shattered when Dante bursts through the door sobbing uncontrollably, snot-covered and red-eyed. Delia, embarrassed, excuses herself and leaves. The narrative notes that Roman and Delia will never resume their encounter, that Delia will be shot in the thigh three months later and move away, and Roman will lose his virginity two years later in Richmond.

Roman tries to comfort Dante, who chokes out that he saw their mother and Mr. Oscar. Dante explains that after a basketball game broke up, he rode to the crematory looking for a soda and money. He found both his mother's and Oscar's vehicles there but no answer at the door, so he went around to the rear roll-up door, heard strange crying-yelling sounds, and looked through the window.

Roman, already suspecting the truth based on looks he had previously caught between Oscar and his mother, and her lost expression around his father, insists they go back to the crematory so their mother can explain it as a mistake. He wants her to lie. The chapter closes with the foreshadowing that lies will become the family's love language, and that his father will tell the boldest lie of all.