As Nel leaves the nursing home, Eva calls after her, "Sula?" and Nel hurries away, searching her memory for that day on the riverbank when Sula was swinging Chicken Little. She recalls the good, satisfying feeling she had when she saw his hands slipping away from Sula's, and she remembers feeling proud that she remained calm and controlled while Sula became hysterical.
Nel's walk takes her to the cemetery, where Sula is buried alongside Plum, Hannah, and Pearl. She remembers the day of Sula's death: No one came running at the news of her death, and it was Nel who finally called the mortuary. Besides Nel, only white people came to bury Sula, not like the hordes of black people who showed up for Hannah's funeral. Even Eva refused to come.
Leaving the cemetery, Nel passes Shadrack, who stops and tries to remember where he has seen her. The events of the day well up in her; her eye twitches, and she gazes up at the trees. The breeze carries Nel's whisper, "Sula?" and finally she releases a deep, instinctual cry for her long-lost, beloved friend and soul mate.
