The White Darkness Chapter 6

The Ice

• By traveling through different time zones, Sym has gained almost a day.
• She reflects on days she wish she could erase from her life: when the dog died, when she first got her hearing aids, when the family car was repossessed, and when her father no longer recognized her.
• Her father's illness slowly took his faculties. He started getting injured, forgetting things, and even got into a car crash.
• Back on the excursion, Sym's fellow travelers have started a series of lectures. First up is the birdwatcher, on birds.
• Sym is super bored so she chats with Titus and tries to get excited about tomorrow, when they'll arrive in Antarctica.
• Victor must be bored, too, because he's falling asleep. Sym wakes him so he won't snore.
• Now the travelers are on another plane, flying over the Southern Ocean. Sym gazes out the window upon an iceberg.
• When the plane hits the Antarctic Circle, it's palpable—it becomes cold in the cabin of the plane.
• Sym tries to look at Antarctica, but it's hard to see because the white is so dazzling. Jon, the trip leader, passes around sunglasses.
• As Sym looks upon all this wonder, she notices Victor out of the corner of her eye. He's concentrating on keeping the plane in the air, of course.
• Sym feels extra grateful for the trip knowing what a strain it's been on Uncle Victor. What a guy right?
• The plane lands. Everyone seems really nervous except for Sym. She was born for this.
• The passengers make camp. Sym tries to take in all the nothingness, picturing Titus on his journey there ninety years before. She feels happy, or at least like happiness is a possibility.