and Hollis had been sure it must have been because of her. Then, after what had happened on that last fateful weekend, she had known beyond a doubt that she could not stay. Now, though, the summer house at Branches should be empty; Josie can still drive, and there is a map in the glove compartment of the old Silver Bullet in the garage. With Hollis gently guiding, Josie takes them the long miles to their destination. The Old Man's mountain stands tall in the background, there are "a million stars" overhead, and the house is beautiful in the snow. Hollis breaks a window to get in, starts a fire, and settles Josie cosily before it. She then maneuvers the Silver Bullet into the shed, next to the crushed remains of a pickup truck.

Hollis has brought provisions enough to sustain herself and Josie for a while. She is frightened when she sees a fisherman on the far side of the river and when she hears the drone of an engine nearby; it is important that their presence not be detected. As Christmas approaches, Hollis and Josie joke about Santa coming to visit on a sleigh; Josie says that a sleigh is old-fashioned and that now Santa comes on a snowmobile. Josie spends her time working on Hollis's carving, and Hollis draws pictures of their beautiful surroundings. The Old Man's mountain reminds Hollis of her last weekend with the Regans. Izzy and the Old Man had gone to town, and Steven had gone fishing. Hollis had taken the time alone to do something she had always wanted to do: climb to the top of the Old Man's mountain, "three hours up, and three hours back, a cinch." At the top of the mountain, she had danced with joy, her dream of a family almost realized. Stepping too close to the edge, she had taken a fall. She knew she would never be able to walk all the way back down alone. Just before sunset, Steven had come at the wheel of the pickup that he was too young to drive. As they went down the mountain, the truck had started to slide, careening out of control and flipping over the edge. When it finally stopped rolling, Hollis had crawled out and gone to get help for Steven, who was hurt badly. Hollis had been patched up and taken home to rest while Izzy and the Old Man waited at the hospital for Steven. Hollis had known that Steven had driven up the mountain because of her. Convinced that she had "messed up the whole family," she had run away.

Hollis thought she knew where everything was in the summer house, but on Christmas Eve, Josie gleefully surprises her with pancake mix, a jar of applesauce, and a box of dried milk. On Christmas morning, Hollis gives Josie a picture of her and Beatrice as they must have looked when they were young. Josie has presents for Hollis too: a tin of Izzy's candy and the tree-figure carving she has been working on of Hollis. Later, in her room, Hollis spreads her drawings out on the bed. She sees that Josie is not happy at the summer house in Branches, and she knows what she must do. She will call Beatrice, and Josie will go back home, where she longs to be. Hollis will burn all the drawings of herself and the Regans and put them out of her mind forever, then go on to live in yet another place. Before she destroys the pictures, however, Hollis studies them one more time. She remembers that the Old Man had come to see her after the accident, after she had run away and been caught. He told her that they, the Regans, all loved her, that the accident wasn't her fault, and that they still wanted to adopt her. But Hollis had been "tough" and refused to listen. She thought that now the Old Man, who had always argued with Steven, was blaming him for the accident instead of her. Hollis had been sure that she really was ruining the family; she could never go back. As she looks at the pictures now, though, Hollis sees things she had never realized were there. There is one of Steven fishing, and the Old Man is smiling at him. In another, Steven and the Old Man were laughing in a boat. Hollis wonders how she could have drawn it but never really seen it: "of course the Old Man loved Steven," he would love him whether Hollis was there or not.

Hollis suspects something else, too, about the sound of the engine and the food and candy Josie "found." She sets out to walk the four miles to a pay phone to call Beatrice, and she hears a snowmobile; it is Steven, who has been watching over her all the time she has been at the summer house. The Regans had been informed that Hollis was missing by the adoption agency, and Steven had known immediately where she would go. Steven asks Hollis about the one thing he cannot comprehend, why she will not accept the home the Regans want to share with her. Hollis tells him how she thought she "messed up the family," and Steven, amazed, says that the accident really was his fault and that he and the Old Man argue because "it's just the way we are." Steven tells Hollis that she is misunderstanding, putting all the blame on herself because, having never had one, she "just [doesn't] know about families yet." Beatrice comes back to take care of Josie, and Hollis goes home, to live with the family that loves her. A year and a half later, the Regans go to visit Josie and Beatrice at the house by the ocean. There are five of them now: Izzy and the Old Man, Steven, Hollis, and Christina, the new baby sister.