Rodeo pulls the bus off the side of the road, shuts it off, turns to face Coyote, and asks her where they’re going. He warns her not to lie to him. He demands that she tell him where it is she intends to go. Coyote is terrified and relieved.

There is a showdown between Coyote, who says she must go back to retrieve the memory box, and her father, who refuses to travel back to Poplin Springs, Washington. With complete determination, Coyote explains to her father why she must return. For the first time in years, she uses the names of her sisters and talks about her mother. She explains how the memory box was created just five days before her mother and sisters were killed in a car accident.

Coyote is supported by all the passengers, who one by one tell Rodeo that going back to his old home is the right thing to do. Slowly, he begins to yield. Coyote presses her advantage, proclaiming that turning away from Poplin Springs is a “no-go” (218). She says, if he does not take her, she will hitchhike the rest of the way alone. When at last he relents and says he will do it, she makes him promise out loud that he will.