In Chap­ter XXI, the nar­ra­tor reflects on a les­son taught by their moth­er, Mom­ma, about the con­cept of “scumbling”—an artis­tic tech­nique sym­bol­iz­ing emo­tion­al expres­sion. She explains that using the right amount of paint allows one’s unique qual­i­ties, or “savvy,” to shine with­out over­shad­ow­ing every­thing else in life. The les­son res­onates with the nar­ra­tor, espe­cial­ly in light of their broth­er Fish’s strug­gles with his pow­er­ful savvy, likened to a tem­pest requir­ing care and con­trol.

As the scene unfolds in Emer­ald, the envi­ron­ment grows chaot­ic with Fish’s wind inten­si­fy­ing. The nar­ra­tor expe­ri­ences dis­tress as they real­ize the absence of famil­iar com­forts from home and the uncer­tain­ty of their jour­ney. This cul­mi­nates in a moment of dan­ger when a “No Park­ing Any Time” sign flies through the air due to Fish’s storm. How­ev­er, Fish demon­strates new­found con­trol over his pow­ers by deflect­ing the sign, an event that grants him a feel­ing of achieve­ment and reas­sur­ance.

With Fish feel­ing calmer, the group, includ­ing Bob­bi and Will, begins to ral­ly togeth­er, shar­ing in a moment where they sense Fish’s grow­ing mas­tery over his abil­i­ties. Despite the chaos out­side, a sense of uni­ty emerges as they all make an effort to sup­port each oth­er. They board a bus with Lester, who seems obliv­i­ous to the tur­bu­lent weath­er. Lill Kite­ley pro­pos­es to join their jour­ney towards Sali­na, poten­tial­ly to find their father, reas­sur­ing the chil­dren amidst the unpre­dictabil­i­ty.

The chap­ter also high­lights Lester’s anx­i­ety over his deliv­er­ies and job secu­ri­ty, prompt­ing a ten­sion between the chil­dren’s needs and his oblig­a­tions. Lill urges him to pri­or­i­tize the chil­dren’s urgency to reach Sali­na. The cul­mi­na­tion of the chap­ter shows Lill’s deter­mi­na­tion to seek clar­i­ty in their cir­cum­stances, empha­siz­ing their shared sit­u­a­tion and call­ing for trans­paren­cy about their next steps, as she sens­es an under­ly­ing ten­sion among them.

As they con­tin­ue, the char­ac­ters grap­ple with the con­flict between per­son­al desires and respon­si­bil­i­ties, paint­ing a vivid pic­ture of their jour­ney in an unpre­dictable world filled with chal­lenges and emo­tion­al growth.