Crushed by JoJo’s drowning, the wife endures nightmares and unexpected anger toward her grieving husband. Seeking to protect Baby Mol and future children, she demands the truth about the family malady she names the Condition. He anticipates the confrontation and retrieves a long-hidden parcel of family records.

Together they unfold a fragile genealogical chart—a Water Tree—annotated across generations with names, notes, and a symbol of a cross over wavy lines to mark deaths by drowning. Through the documents and her reading, the wife realizes the lineage has repeatedly lost relatives to water. In the process, she discovers her husband cannot read and hears poorly.

When she blames secrecy for JoJo’s fate, her husband erupts, recalling how fear once imprisoned him away from school and rivers. He defends letting JoJo live boldly despite the risk, insisting he assumed her uncle had told her. He laments his own exploitation due to illiteracy and affirms, “This is who I am,” before withdrawing.

Alone, the wife contemplates Baby Mol’s uncertain future and the family’s stigma. She takes custody of the Water Tree, enters her own marriage, and writes JoJo’s death, adding the symbol and the words “DROWNED IN IRRIGATION DITCH.” She resolves to preserve the record and align herself with this inherited burden.

That night, after prayer with her mother, she asks God: if not cured by divine will, then send someone who can heal or explain the Condition. Her grief transforms into purpose—stewardship, knowledge, and a plea for deliverance.