The Five Year Lie

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, and sexual content.

The narrative returns to the present. Ariel gets her assigned watermelons for the preschool picnic but then changes her mind about attending when she thinks about Zain. Ariel tells Buzz’s teacher that there’s been a family emergency. She gets money from the bank, goes home to pack, and calls a ride share. She leaves her mother a note that they are staying with friends and ignores Ray’s texts about Zain. In an attempt to be untraceable, she leaves her phone behind in the ride-share car.

Buzz enjoys train rides, but the station in Boston is chaos, and Ariel realizes that they will have to show IDs to get on a train. Taking the bus is more anonymous, but the bus route to Harrietta, the tiny town in Michigan where Jay once mentioned his friend Woody lives, will take multiple days.

By the time the bus is ready to leave, Buzz is cranky and wants to go home. Ariel is scared to fall asleep in case she misses one of the four transfers. She believes that Ray and the Zarkey siblings are responsible for Zain’s death and the problems at Chime Co.