Summary

Sarat plays with mosquitos caught by an oil trap, squishing them between her fingers. Dana criticizes her sister in disgust, but Sarat finds the creatures intriguing, deeming them to be the “veins and arteries through which life’s magic flowed” (24). Martina hangs laundry, and the narrator explains that some families who live in the “Mag” (a term referring to the secessionist states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia) dye their clothes red to avoid conflict with the rebels who control the territory. Newer garments are brought to the east by international aid ships, but since they are in high demand they are difficult to get a hold of for the Chestnut family.

Eliza Polk, the Chestnut’s closest neighbor, visits the family for dinner. Martina is anxious because Benjamin should have returned, but Polk suspects that Benjamin must stay upriver overnight while waiting to obtain...