Chap­ter 16 begins with relent­less March rain ham­mer­ing down on Bai­leyville, drench­ing the town in an unend­ing down­pour that blurs the sea­sons and trans­forms roads into treach­er­ous mud­slides. The storm’s unyield­ing force dis­rupts dai­ly life, test­ing both the endurance of the peo­ple and the ani­mals strug­gling to find refuge from the del­uge. Against this chaot­ic back­drop, the town’s librarians—Margery, Beth, and Alice—along with Fred, form a tem­po­rary sanc­tu­ary of calm as they gath­er to share sto­ries, fears, and con­cerns about the ris­ing water lev­els. Their cama­raderie is a reflec­tion of the town’s col­lec­tive anx­i­ety, a reminder that nature’s pow­er, though unpre­dictable, is some­thing they must all face togeth­er.

Margery, soaked from her library route, joins the con­ver­sa­tion just as the group begins dis­cussing past floods, recall­ing the destruc­tion that such dis­as­ters had brought before. The ten­sion thick­ens when the mail­man deliv­ers urgent news—the riv­er is ris­ing at an alarm­ing rate, threat­en­ing the homes along the creek beds. With no time to waste, the librar­i­ans quick­ly mobi­lize, spread­ing warn­ings through­out the town, their con­cern shift­ing from idle wor­ry to imme­di­ate action. Margery’s lead­er­ship shines through as she orga­nizes the effort, prov­ing once again that, despite her uncon­ven­tion­al ways, she is deeply invest­ed in the well-being of her com­mu­ni­ty.

Mean­while, Izzy strug­gles with her increas­ing­ly restric­tive home life, feel­ing sti­fled by domes­tic expec­ta­tions that now define her days. Frus­trat­ed with sewing lessons and long­ing for the inde­pen­dence she once had at the library, she seizes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to break free when she hears about the efforts to warn those in dan­ger. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, she joins the res­cue mis­sion, deter­mined to con­tribute despite her inex­pe­ri­ence, and in doing so, reignites a long-dor­mant sense of pur­pose with­in her­self. This bold deci­sion marks a piv­otal moment in Izzy’s per­son­al growth, as she begins to see her­self as capa­ble of more than what her fam­i­ly expects of her.

Margery and Beth ride tire­less­ly through town, their hors­es kick­ing up mud­dy water as they rush to alert fam­i­lies of the loom­ing dan­ger. Their warn­ings save many, and their res­cue efforts extend beyond peo­ple, as they help Mrs. Cor­nish pull her strand­ed mule from the thick, suf­fo­cat­ing mud. This seem­ing­ly small act of kindness—saving an animal—symbolizes the broad­er theme of sol­i­dar­i­ty in Bai­leyville, where even in the face of dis­as­ter, no one, not even a mule, is left behind.

While Margery and Beth tra­verse the flood­ed roads, Kath­leen, Alice, and Fred focus on anoth­er cru­cial task—saving the library’s books from water dam­age. Stack­ing vol­umes onto high­er shelves and plac­ing sand­bags against the entrance, they work tire­less­ly, rec­og­niz­ing that the flood threat­ens not just homes and lives but also the knowl­edge and sto­ries they have fought so hard to bring to the com­mu­ni­ty. Their bat­tle against the water is a metaphor for resilience itself; even as nature wreaks hav­oc, their efforts to pre­serve the library rep­re­sent the town’s unwa­ver­ing spir­it in the face of adver­si­ty.

Izzy’s sud­den arrival at the library sur­pris­es Alice and Fred, but her deter­mi­na­tion to help earns her new­found respect. Though she had pre­vi­ous­ly strug­gled with self-doubt and soci­etal expec­ta­tions, her resolve to contribute—despite her phys­i­cal limitations—cements her rein­te­gra­tion into the town’s fab­ric. In this moment, she is no longer just the girl who left the library behind; she is some­one will­ing to fight for what mat­ters, prov­ing her strength in ways she had nev­er expect­ed.

The cli­max of the chap­ter unfolds as Margery reach­es Sophia and William’s home, where the flood­wa­ters have risen dan­ger­ous­ly high. With William strand­ed and their mule in dis­tress, Margery, despite car­ry­ing the weight of her own preg­nan­cy, throws her­self into the res­cue effort. Risk­ing her own safe­ty, she helps guide Sophia and the fright­ened ani­mal to high­er ground while bat­tling the ris­ing cur­rent. Fear for her unborn child flick­ers at the edge of her con­scious­ness, but she refus­es to aban­don those in need, her courage out­weigh­ing any hes­i­ta­tion.

As the rain con­tin­ues to pour and the riv­er swells, the town of Bai­leyville is left to reck­on with both the imme­di­ate destruc­tion and the resilience of those who have fought to pro­tect it. Margery’s self­less­ness, Beth and Izzy’s courage, and Alice’s deter­mi­na­tion to safe­guard the library all high­light the theme of uni­ty in the face of hard­ship. Despite the flood­wa­ters threat­en­ing to wash away their world, the peo­ple of Bai­leyville prove that strength is not mea­sured by what is lost but by how fierce­ly one fights to save what remains.