By 1903 at Parambil, Ammachi has turned the kitchen breezeway into a work-and-school corner where she teaches JoJo. Shamuel begins delivering the Manorama weekly, likely arranged by her husband, and she reads it aloud each evening. Despite this, she is lonely, missing her mother and church. When Lent starts she fasts rigorously, prays for help, and longs to worship.

Determined, Ammachi prepares exceptional erechi olarthiyathu; during dinner, a playful exchange with JoJo leads her husband to laugh, then to ask, “Sughamano?” She gathers courage to say she misses her mother and wishes to go to church. That night she discovers a trunk of the late wife’s clothes and, hidden within, a Bible—fueling her hope.

On Sunday her husband dresses formally and leads her overland to church, avoiding boats. He waits by the graveyard while Ammachi rejoices in the Eucharist. Afterward, he confides his anger at God for taking JoJo’s mother. Ammachi assures him the late wife watches over them and affirms her role as JoJo’s mother, and he visibly softens; they return walking in step.

The following Sunday he urges her to go by boat without him; she recognizes his sadness and fear of water. On her sixteenth birthday, Damo the elephant arrives, delighting the village children. Ammachi cooks meen vevichathu; later her husband shyly asks for ghee rice for Damo and presents Ammachi with gold kunukku earrings, a sign of esteem and womanhood.

That night he gently leads Ammachi to his room. Their first lovemaking is painful but careful, and afterward she feels transformed—at once vulnerable and empowered. In the days that follow, she speaks more freely; he listens attentively. Life at Parambil resumes its cycles, but the distance between husband and wife is gone, and in prayer Ammachi claims her place as the partner chosen for him.