Hollis begins the chapter by noting she never drew this day, but the pictures keep coming back in her mind. Izzy and the Old Man have gone out town for the day. Steven asks Hollis to join him on an all-day fishing trip, but she declines, as she secretly plans to hike up the mountain on her own. Hollis starts the walk once Steven has left. It’s a hard climb, just as muddy as the Old Man said it would be, and Hollis twists her ankle. The view at the top is magnificent. Hollis yells into the solitude to mark this new part of her life: “I’m new. […] I’m different” (121). In her haze of joy, Hollis suddenly trips and falls off the cliff she’s standing on, cutting her head, but a boulder stops her before she can fall too far. She’s okay, but she realizes she isn’t going to make it back home alone.

Hours pass. Hollis starts to call out for Steven, even though he’s too far away to hear, but luckily, he soon arrives in the pickup truck. He had returned early from his fishing trip and guessed where she’d gone. As they watch the sunset together, Hollis pulls the magazine picture of the family from the very first scene in the novel out of her backpack.