The narrator remembers feeling relieved and embarrassed as she held onto her mother and escaped through a window. Anna then took matters into her own hands, stripping down to her underwear and scaling the tree. When her parents arrived at the scene with the firefighters, Anna knew the only way to save her was through a flimsy branch next to the window. The narrator rolled a rug and kept it by the gap beneath the door, and wore her flannel robe as she had learnt in school, waiting for her parents. The narrator was seven, and the babysitter ran out of the house to save herself. The third incident that put the narrator in her mother’s debt was a direct one- Anna saved her daughter from a fire. This is the second debt- the hospital that brought about their union, and subsequently birthed the narrator. He taught her to read and write, and when she wanted to continue living in the same place so as not to be separated from the tombstone of her unborn child, he agreed, moving them into his family’s farmhouse.

The narrator’s father, who had passed away recently, was the doctor who nursed Anna back to health after the injury.

The second incident was the meeting between the narrator’s mother and father. Anna’s self-preservation was a stepping stone into the narrator’s existence. The narrator considers this her mother’s first time saving her life– for if Anna had not saved herself, the narrator could not have been born. Despite her efforts, the baby was born as a stillborn 2 months later, buried just beyond the house. She escaped with injuries, while Harry died. She could have reached out and grabbed Harry’s ankle- with equal chance of saving him and falling alongside him to death- but instead, she chose to rescue herself in hopes of keeping the unborn baby safe. However, during one show, a stroke of lightning during an unexpected storm hit the tent. She was part of a duo with her then-husband, Harry, and they were called the Flying Avalons. The first was back when Anna was still performing in the circus.

The sentence louise erdrich summary