Dewey’s Papa explains that he will be home late; there is an important meeting with government bureaucrats. Dewey is disappointed. Dewey spends the day writing a book report and then working on her alarm clock invention; she wants to connect her alarm clock to a radio to wake up to music each day. Terry Gordon, Suze’s mom, stops by looking for Dewey’s father. Terry stays for an hour, has lunch with Dewey, and discusses her alarm clock invention with her. Dewey reflects that she likes Mrs. Gordon and that it is nice to know a female scientist. She finishes her alarm clock project. At 10:30pm, Papa is still not home, so she goes to bed.

Dewey’s Papa doesn’t wake up until 10 the next morning; he admits that he had too many drinks at a staff party, wanting to forget about the stress of the war. Dewey is relieved that they are still planning to go on a picnic together. They drive to the Bandelier National Monument and climb up into a cave that the Indigenous people of the area, the Anasazi, had lived in. They look at drawings in the cave and eat a picnic lunch.