In this chap­ter, the nar­ra­tor and Sol find them­selves anchored on a canal, where they appre­ci­ate the tran­quil sur­round­ings, includ­ing orchards and fields. Sol, ini­tial­ly ener­getic and larg­er than life, appears to shrink into her­self under a blan­ket while sleep­ing, prompt­ing the nar­ra­tor to reflect on her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and the dire cir­cum­stances they face. As the night pass­es, he wish­es for his bass gui­tar to calm her with music but strug­gles to recall a com­fort­ing melody.

With dawn, the scene bright­ens as chil­dren fly a kite near­by. Sol express­es con­cern, mis­tak­ing the kite for some­thing sin­is­ter, which she refers to as a “death angel.” She recounts a trou­bling belief impart­ed by some­one named Richard, sug­gest­ing that there are celes­tial beings watch­ing over them, eager to mon­i­tor their thoughts about author­i­ty. This moment high­lights Sol’s whim­si­cal yet dark world­view.

Their morn­ing shifts focus to pan­cakes, which Sol sug­gests, and they enjoy a meal under the sun, leav­ing behind the notions of death angels. Sol devel­ops a fas­ci­na­tion with the kite, want­i­ng to fly it her­self. Dur­ing this time, the nar­ra­tor rem­i­nisces about his own kite-fly­ing expe­ri­ences, por­tray­ing it as a joy­ful pur­suit akin to catch­ing a fish in the sky.

Their peace­ful morn­ing is dis­rupt­ed by a group of local boys, who ini­tial­ly appear inno­cent but soon cause chaos by shoot­ing at the nar­ra­tor with air rifles and rutaba­gas, leav­ing him amused and exas­per­at­ed. When Sol appears with a spear, the boys retreat, intim­i­dat­ed by her pres­ence.

As they nav­i­gate through the canal, they observe stark con­trasts between the live­ly main­land and the dete­ri­o­rat­ing island, where despair per­me­ates amidst neglect­ed homes and land­scapes. The chap­ter also explores the grow­ing ten­sion between islanders and main­lan­ders, high­light­ing the bit­ter­ness of envy and resent­ment that has tak­en root among the island’s inhab­i­tants.

Seek­ing sup­plies and fuel, they vis­it a run­down gas sta­tion where they encounter Dou­glas, a pecu­liar and chat­ty man who pro­vides insight into the local dynam­ics and invites them to par­take in a month­ly com­mu­nal vig­il against per­ceived local evils. Despite the unset­tling atmos­phere, they man­age to gath­er their gro­ceries and nec­es­sary items.

Ulti­mate­ly, they leave with some sup­plies, but not with­out notic­ing the absence of a sup­posed bull­dog from earlier—a detail that rais­es ques­tions about Sol’s mys­te­ri­ous acqui­si­tion of cash to sup­port their pro­vi­sions, set­ting the stage for deep­er explo­rations of her char­ac­ter in the nar­ra­tive to come.