James is in jail. Alfred awakes in Aunt Pearl's apartment and learns from Aunt Pearl that Henry Johnson found Alfred wandering around the previous night, beaten but not permanently injured, and that Henry and Henry's father carried him home. When Aunt Pearl asks how he was hurt, Alfred tells her that he fell off a fence, but she doesn't believe him. After Aunt Pearl goes to work and his cousins go out to play, Alfred tries to eat a little and watches some television (where he sees a show depicting a white suburban family, whose life stands in stark contrast to his own); but he spends most of the day asleep.
That night, Alfred goes out, avoiding streets where he might meet Major or his henchmen. Alfred sees Henry Johnson but avoids him, too, because he is in no mood to express gratitude. Without consciously meaning to, Alfred winds up in front of the building housing Donatelli's Gym. Alfred thinks he spots Major in the distance and runs across the street, but he realizes that the man he saw is not his adversary, and he feels ashamed. He wonders if he will always be a slave to fear. Although Alfred shakes with uncertainty, he somehow climbs the stairs to the third-floor gym where he meets a stocky, stoic older man. Alfred says that he has come to be a fighter.
