The following day, watching the Harlem community "going apart at the seams," the narrator initiates his plan, telling Brotherhood members whatever he thinks they want to hear. Later that afternoon, he tests the effectiveness of his tactics by announcing that his group has launched a clean-up campaign in Harlem to get the people's minds off Brother Clifton's death. He turns in a fake list of new members, amazed at how easily the Brotherhood accepts his lies.
Giving up on his plan to pursue Emma to get information about the Brotherhood, he pursues Sybil, the wife of a Brotherhood member, instead. But while he thinks he is using Sybil to meet his needs, she uses him to fulfill her sexual fantasy: being raped by a black man.
Following their abortive attempt to have an affair, the narrator puts Sybil in a cab and takes a bus back to Harlem. After getting off the bus and running toward the Harlem neighborhood, the narrator passes underneath a bridge and is forced to use his briefcase as a shield to protect himself from the droppings of pigeons perched on the bridge.
