The Swans of Fifth Avenue

The friendship between Babe and Truman continues to grow at the Paleys’ home in Jamaica, where the duo ask each other questions about first kisses, childhood pets, guilty pleasures, and greatest accomplishments. Truman says his greatest accomplishment will be winning the Pulitzer Prize, a declaration that leads Babe to marvel at his being an intellectual who is also her friend. She’s taken aback when Truman criticizes her statement that her children are her greatest accomplishment as being “bourgeois.” More than that, Truman comments, he’s never even met Babe’s four children. She admits that they stay at Kiluna Farm most of the time, and claims that she needs to focus her energies on taking care of Bill, an answer that Truman finds unsatisfying. Still, she reflects to herself, Truman is only saying this to her as a friend, and she is lucky to have a friend who can speak so candidly. They seal their status as “best friends” with a pinky swear.

Later that day, Truman and Babe go to the market at Montego Bay. Babe drives with a recklessness that excites her and unnerves Truman; she later apologizes for having scared him: She no longer has the opportunity to drive very often and wanted to enjoy it.