The Sky So Heavy: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Returning home, Fin finds Max glued to his video game. He chastises Max for not picking up their mom’s calls and tells him to look out the window. On the news, they hear uncertain reports of what has gone wrong with the nuclear testing, and dire predictions of global famine and nuclear winter.

On the phone again, Libby tells Fin to fill all available containers with tap water. Fin thinks people might be overreacting, but she says it’s her job to overreact. The TV news begins to flicker and pixelate. Fin is disturbed by the lack of images or information from the apparent disaster, while the anchors speak of whole nations having been destroyed and global catastrophe. He texts Lucy to ask if she’s ok, unsure what else to do.

Fin’s father Greg returns and has an apparent spat with Kara in the other room. The family then sits down for a tense dinner, during which Greg takes a somewhat dismissive attitude toward the news. Max finds an opportunity to express his contempt for Kara, saying she’s not really his “family.” This angers Greg and prompts Kara to stand up and leave, saying she’s going to her mom’s. Greg gets furious at Max but holds off on punishing him for the moment as he rushes out the door to follow Kara.

Greg doesn’t return that night, and Fin’s attempts to text his friends and go online are all fruitless: everything is disconnected. The next morning, Fin and Max awake to find the house freezing and the sky and ground dark with snow, a total anomaly in their region. Fin is suddenly reminded of a day when he was three years old, when his mom and dad drove him to a snowfield and they spent the day riding a toboggan. This was the only time Fin had ever seen snow.

The snow currently on the ground is grey and slushy. Fin stops Max from going out to play in it, thinking that it might be radioactive. Max seems excited by the idea of poisonous snow. The electricity has now gone out entirely. Fin gets $10 out of his dad’s drawer and heads out to look for a newspaper. He sees his neighbor Ellen outside her house, watching her kids playing in the snow. She seems lighthearted about the bizarre occurrence, encouraging her kids to build a snowman, but Fin warns her of radiation in the snow. He then offers to pick up some groceries for her, and she gratefully entrusts him with $20.

At the grocer Starvos’s store, Starvos explains that no paper has been delivered, and that most of the canned food has been bought up. Fin still manages to get some things for Ellen. Walking home, Fin reflects on how he had always hoped for a miraculous snowfall on Christmas as a kid; now that it has finally snowed, it's not so wonderful.

When Fin returns home, he finds Lokey in his kitchen eating cereal. Lokey is thrilled about the snow, which Fin notices he has tracked throughout the house. Max returns with a garbage can lid for Lokey to go sledding on. Fin takes a stern and disapproving attitude towards Lokey’s jolly response to the snow. He takes what precautions he can to safely clean up the puddles of it that Lokey has left. He angrily prevents Max from joining Lokey in sledding, again referencing the dangers of radiation.

Lokey continues to crack jokes, calling Kara hot and teasing Fin about his study date with Lucy the day before. Lokey then takes a series of sled rides in Fin’s yard before driving off. Fin and Max now bum around for the rest of the day, unsure what to do. Their house is getting colder. Fin reflects on the oddity of their house being filled with electronic devices that are now totally useless without electricity. As Fin and Max share a bleak dinner of leftover sausage, Fin tries to reassure Max about Greg, who still hasn’t returned home. He then asks Max to promise him that they will stay together no matter what happens.