How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I lay there thinking and trying not to think, trusting him to know when we should get in the water and fearing that no one could know when to get in the water. I felt his shadow and heard the scrape of his feet. He lay down beside me and put one arm over my waist, and we lay there front to back until I took the fists away from my eyes and turned around. (45.17)
We'd be totally scared if we were just hanging out in the woods while a fire was headed our way, but as Pearl considers her options, she chooses not to decide anything for herself at all, instead handing over the reigns to Amiel. Luckily they don't go up in flames, but it's a risky decision.
Quote #8
I think now we should have followed Amiel's plan. If we had, we would have stayed in the place where Robby told my uncle to look, and he would have found us. (46.2)
Pearl second-guesses Amiel's plan so much that she comes up with one of her own. It's too bad she didn't just stick with the one Amiel hatched, though, because it might have caused fewer problems for her down the line. As Pearl realizes her mistake, we wonder whether she will make decisions differently in the future.
Quote #9
I used him as a pillow and a sort of bed, one leg flung over his. Burrowing and gnawing into my sleep was the memory that I had never called my mother, and that memory chewed sleep to bits until I was awake again thinking, What have I done? (48.2)
Hey, we know the feeling—it's the one you can't shake after you've made a big decision and think it wasn't the right one. Pearl figures this out all too late. She knows when she wakes up after the fire that she's messed up big-time by staying in the woods; she just doesn't know how badly yet.