Chapter Ten Summary

Violet and Quigley begin climbing the frozen waterfall in Chapter 10, using forks lashed to their shoes and forks in theier hands to make their way up the ice. As the climb, they talk about the past and learn they share certain experiences, such as their parents using similar sayings and phrases. Knowing what they do about the VFD, they speculate that all of the adults they have been in the care of since the death of their parents were members of the VFD on one side or the other.

The two pause to rest on an ice shelf part way up the slope, and here the narrator interjects that he will leave this part of the story unexplained in order to provide them with some privacy. When he returns to the narrative, they have started to climb again, each with small...