Wash Day, night
- Sig starts to wonder if his dad would still be alive if he'd taken a gun out with him that morning—he starts questioning everything, and then curses.
- It dawns on him that Nadya (his young stepmom) and Anna (his older sister) would scold him if they heard him use words like that. Luckily, they've left the cabin to get some help with the body.
- As Sig makes a fire, he thinks about stuff his dad taught him, like what happens inside a gun when it fires.
- Sig questions why his dad, Einar, would go across the frozen lake in the first place.
- It turns out Einar works in the assay office at the local mine—it's Wash Day today though, which means that Einar took care of some business, but then the rest of the day hung out with his fam.
- We get the dirt on Wash Day: First the girls each get a turn in the hot, clean water, then Sig and then his dad clean themselves up.
- Sig loves Wash Day, but not because he gets clean—after he finishes his bath, his dad always shares stuff with him… or, he did before he died.
- Einar would tell his son stuff like "A gun is not a weapon," or "Never cross the lake once you see a hooded crow"—you know, the kind of advice parents love to dish out.
- Then it occurs to Sig: Einar went back on his own advice in crossing the lake. But why?