- Everything changes when "a big museum in New York," which the author insinuates but never directly says is The Museum of Modern Art, offers $3.6 million for the heap of meaning.
- They accept the deal, and the lawyers start signing contracts and figuring out how to transport the rapidly decaying heap.
- Also decaying? The media's, and therefore the public's, interest. With their celebrity waning, class 7A becomes totally confused about whether the heap was meaningful or not. And if it was, how could it just stop being?
- Pierre Anthon is having a total field day. He may be sitting in a tree in the middle of winter dreaming about the days of plums gone by, but he's totally right.
- Existentialism: 1, Class 7A: 0.
- Sofie, however, is sticking it out. She still sees the meaning. And can you blame her? Jon-Johan may have lost a finger, but given the cultural importance of girls' virginity, it could be argued that Sofie lost the most.