fifty-one days after
- Miles starts doing his religion homework again and reads about a man who comes to Buddhist enlightenment through realizing there is no best or worst. He wonders that if he will ever be enlightened about Alaska.
- In class, the Old Man reminds students that everything falls apart.
- After this lecture, Miles has his own sort of enlightenment that nothing will last, and that when he stops wishing that things will last, his suffering will stop. He realizes even his memories won't last, that Alaska is leaving him again.
- They have no answers, but Miles still hopes for an answer to why she died.