Juggling Fire Chapter Summary

n Juggling Fire Chapters 17(The Snow Queen), 18(In the End), and the Epilogue is the end to Rachel’s journey through the Yukon Territory.
In chapter 17, the snow queen, Rachel and Brooks are living off “...oats, flour, and rice until [Rachel’s] mom gets [there].” Rachel and Brooks have to “...walk… down the only trail, until the the rivers freeze solid.” When traveling the trail Rachel makes sure that her and Brooks stop every once in awhile to scan the horizon for any movement that maybe bears. When Rachel scans the area she “particularly watch[s] for movement, not just for animals themselves but also of branches they may have brushed.”. They then continue to walk on, up the river, back to the house. Rachel see that both stoves are full and the catch ladder is leaning up against the house, while looking through her monocle. She find the roundest rocks she can find and starts to juggle, with the “snatching from above” and the “behind the back” juggling tricks. She then puts three sticks into the fire, pulling them out and throwing them towards the sky, she is juggling fire. (As mentioned earlier in the book juggling helps calm Rachel and helps her focus on her thoughts.) On their way home, when it is snowing, over Brooks and Rachel’s tracks is
Rachel grabs her father’s old leather belt and makes a torch and a bonfire out of kerosene. When juggling, she reflects how different things, even in our universe, are being juggled such as: planets, galaxies and suns. She is juggling the flaming torches, she lets them later drop to her feet. She reflects to a story that she had told her mother and Becky before she left home. She releases that she can not change her ending, or her life the way that it was happened. Yes, her father is dead, and she misses him. When juggling she focuses on him and memories of him, the memories of snatching his baseball cap, and the sound of his voice, even if it a whisper she hangs on to