After dinner, Lucky thinks about parsley while she washes the dishes. Before Brigitte came to Hard Pan, Lucky never thought about parsley except when she went to Smithy’s Family Restaurant in Sierra City. Lucky knows Smithy’s is a fancy place, partly because of the sprig of parsley that comes with the hamburgers. Almost nobody eats this parsley, but it looks fancy and healthy on the plate.

Brigitte is not like the people at Smithy's. To her, parsley is a necessary part of almost every meal. She serves it chopped up and sprinkled over “practically everything, including food regular people do not even realize goes with parsley,” such as garlic toast. Lucky likes this. Parsley makes everything taste clean, like herbs.

It is apparently a French thing to like parsley so much. In France people have little hand grinders for their parsley. It makes herbs into “perfect little flakes” with almost no effort or mess. Brigitte missed her parsley grinder when she first came to the United States, so her mother sent her one. This made Brigitte cry with happiness.

Tonight, while washing the dishes, Lucky cleans the parsley grinder very well. In the process, she accidentally bends one of its little pins. When she puts it back together, she cannot turn the handle. When Brigitte sees this, she says “Oh, la vache,” which means, “Oh, the cow” but does not really have anything to do with cows. She says it the way people say “Oh, what a pain.” Lucky tries to fix the parsley grinder, but she cannot, so Brigitte calls Dot, the hairdresser, and asks to use a pair of little pliers she uses for making jewelry.

As Brigitte gets ready to go to Dot’s, Lucky looks for the car keys and ends up noticing the little red suitcase that Brigitte brought with her when she came from France. This suitcase has been in a closet for two years, and now it is out, sitting on a chair. Lucky peeks inside and sees Brigitte’s passport on top of a stack of papers. Lucky knows that passports are used only for going back and forth from one country to another, so she knows exactly what must be going on. Brigitte is leaving.

At this moment, Lucky hits rock bottom. Suddenly she understands that she has misunderstood the whole business with the Higher Power. She has always thought that, if she could find her Higher Power, she could get “special insight—about how the world works, and why people die, and how to keep bad things from happening.” Now she realizes that the anonymous people always hit rock bottom before they get control over their lives. Only then can they “do a fearless and searching moral inventory” and find their Higher Power.

Lucky is far too mad and sad to be fearless and moral. Brigitte is leaving her and going back to France—which is the worst thing that could possibly happen. Lucky has to get control over her life, but she does not know how to do that. She is only ten, and a ten-year-old has little chance of getting control over anything. Adults have all the control, and adults can die or decide they do not want their kids or fly away to France at a moment’s notice. Nevertheless, Lucky decides that she cannot give up hope. She just has to steal control over her life. She has to run away from home.