Turtles All the Way Down: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Aza explains that she and Mom used to paddle down the White River in their canoe, but Aza hasn't been on the river in years. She says it smells of sewage because every time it rains, the sewer overflows into the river. When Aza and Daisy get to Aza's house, Aza pries open the garage door and parks Harold. Inside, Aza sits in front of her air conditioning unit and Daisy decides she needs to change out of her Chuck E. Cheese uniform. Aza and Daisy go through Mom's closet to find something as Daisy tells Aza about her theory that uniforms are designed specifically to make a person a nonperson.

Mom's closet is filled with ugly clothes, and Daisy decides she'll stick with the uniform. Aza hears Mom get home and feels nervous. Daisy grabs Aza and leads her outside to the canoe before Mom gets in the house. Daisy sweeps dead spiders out of the canoe and asks Aza to help her get it into the water. Aza mentions that the river is half urine, but follows Daisy into the canoe and pushes off with her paddle.

Aza remembers playing on the river with Daisy when they were little. Daisy would throw daddy longlegs spiders at Aza. Aza would run and scream but wasn't actually scared. She says that then, all emotions were experiments. Now, she's stuck with fear, which she says is the true meaning of terror.

Daisy explains that the White River is the only reason Indianapolis exists. Right after Indiana became a state, people decided to build the capital city in the middle of the new state on the convenient river before they realized the river was only six inches deep and non-navigable. Daisy explains that her dad told her that as her phone rings. It's her dad asking if she can switch shifts to be able to watch her little sister, Elena, that night. Daisy agrees, hangs up, and tells Aza that their destiny is coming into focus.

As Aza and Daisy float down the river, Aza looks up through dead tree branches that fracture the sky. She tells the reader that her dad used to take pictures of the sky through branches like that, and she still has her dad's phone and its charger in Harold. Finally, Aza and Daisy get to an island in the river. They get out of the canoe and wander in different directions. Aza remembers a birthday party she had on the island and thinks that she was really good at being a kid. When Aza wanders back to Daisy, Daisy asks Aza if she remembers the birthday party. Aza remembers that Davis lost his beloved Iron Man action figure, but Mom found it. Daisy asks Aza again if she's okay, and Aza can only say "yeah."

After sitting for a while, Aza and Daisy wade through the river until they get to the bank of the river. Aza climbs the floodwall and then helps Daisy up. They walk through a small forest and notice the Picketts' golf course and their mansion in the background. Daisy finally finds the night-vision camera. The camera isn't password protected, so Aza connects her phone to the camera and begins downloading photographs of animals. Daisy quietly says that a golf cart is coming their way. Aza continues going through photos and finally comes to a photograph of Mr. Pickett in his nightshirt, with a 1:01am timestamp. Aza takes a screenshot of the picture as Daisy nervously says that the golf cart is coming closer.

The next photo (the one after the photo of Mr. Pickett) won't load. Aza is calm as she waits, but Daisy is obviously agitated and runs off. When the photo finally loads, Aza sees it is just a photo of a coyote. Aza looks up at the man in the golf cart and runs after Daisy. As she scrambles down the floodwall, Daisy is prepared to smash a rock into the canoe. Daisy explains that she's going to "damsel-in-distress this situation." After she creates a hole in the canoe, she lets it take on water.

The man in the golf cart calls down to Aza and Daisy from the top of the wall. Daisy explains that their canoe has a hole in it and that they're friends with Davis Pickett. The man introduces himself as Lyle, head of security, and says he can get the girls home.