Credence

Noah is having sex with a woman named Remi in his room. He reflects that the sex is meaningless, but at least he pleases his sexual partners. His father hurts the women whom he is with emotionally, while women are “lucky to leave alive” from Kaleb’s room (138). Noah goes for a shower, hoping that Remi leaves by the time he returns. He meets Tiernan, back from cleaning the chicken coop. They have a tussle over who gets to use the shower first. Just then, Noah hears Remi call for him. He hides in the shower with Tiernan and asks her to tell Remi that he is not in there. Despite knowing that it is a mean thing to do, Tiernan agrees. Noah asks Tiernan about her life in LA. Tiernan tells him that her favorite thing about it was the beach. She once walked into the sea with a heavy backpack with the intention of drowning herself. At some point she did let go of the backpack because she wanted to be alive after all. Noah thinks that people contemplate dying by suicide out of loneliness, but Tiernan is not alone anymore. Noah roughhouses with Tiernan, trying to make her laugh.