St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Reggie narrates the story of the time he and his friend, Badger, snuck into the local skating rink to witness an adults-only event called the Blizzard. It is the event that began and cemented their friendship.

At the start, Badger asks Reg what happens during the Blizzard, assuming he knows because his father is the maintenance man at the Palace of Artificial Snows. However, Reg has no idea and doesn’t think his father does either, as he never attends. Annoyed by this answer, Badger informs him that they are going to go to the event the following Wednesday. This makes Reg happy as be believes he has finally made a friend.

They arrive at the Palace of Artificial Snows, which Reg describes as a boring blue stucco building that conceals a frozen paradise inside. In the parking lot, they see a St. Bernard that someone has left in the hot car; Badger smashes the window.

They also notice Badger’s father’s car in the parking lot. This is not a surprise, as it is well known that his father spends a lot of time at the Palace. Reg also loves the rink, where he would often “skate in tight, contained circles, and dream about winter” (135).

Inside, Reg and Badger find hiding places under the booth from which they can see the whole ice rink and DJ booth. Nearby, they hear the apes, which perform skating shows. They see Lady Yeti, “the DJ and Modulator of Snows,” riding a Zamboni across the ice (136). She is wearing a furry yeti costume which she never takes off. Her counterpart is the Ice Witch, who runs the rink during the day.

The boys watch the Apes on Ice! show from their hiding place and are close enough to see the leashes Lady Yeti uses to lead them around. Reg notes that “in a peculiar inversion, the apes wore human costumes” (138).

After the show, Lady Yeti announces closing time and the families leave. The temperature drops and adults start filing in. They recognize many of the shoes, including those of Badger’s father. Badger admits that he has tried to stop his father from attending the Blizzard.

While they are talking, Lady Yeti notices them in their hiding place. She skates over to tell them they shouldn’t be there but tells them to stay put.

They watch as Badger’s father is one of the first people to step onto the ice. He skates poorly and approaches an unknown woman, pulling her close. Badger gets angry and blames Reg and his father for his own father’s actions, saying there “wouldn’t even be a Blizzard if your pops didn’t work maintenance and your pops wouldn’t need to work maintenance if you didn’t exist” (141). Reggie points out the flaw in this argument, and Badger starts wondering how to destroy the ice rink. He uses his favorite word, “wondercould, a lexical bridge to all sorts of ugliness” (142).

The snow of the Blizzard starts falling, and the boys watch the adults as they skate through the confusion, faster and faster. They fall into one another and into the snowbanks around the edge. Lady Yeti continues to act as DJ, taking requests. At one point, there is a gap in the snowfall, leaving the boys’ school lunch lady exposed. At the mayor’s insistence, Lady Yeti says she will call maintenance, which makes Reg afraid she will call his father. However, the problem fixes itself.

Reg told his father he was staying at Badger while Badger is supposed to be home babysitting his very ill mother. Given his mother’s condition, Reg understands why Badger’s father would come to the Blizzard.

They see Lady Yeti helping the woman Badger’s father had been skating with off the ice. The boys follow them to the bathroom where Badger confronts her, demanding to know why she was skating with his father. The woman doesn’t remember him.

Leaving the bathroom, Badger tells Reg they have to turn off the Blizzard somehow and they make their way onto the ice. It is all snow and confusion, but Reg sees “a terrible pleasure to this, getting pelted and bruised, pelting and bruising in circles” (149).

Eventually, Badger and Reg get knocked down and Badger loses a tooth. Distantly, Reg thinks he hears his father’s laugh and then gets separated from Badger. Finally, he reaches the DJ booth and sees Lady Yeti’s costume there, but it is empty.

Reg picks up the phone to call maintenance and hears his father’s sleepy voice on the other end, confirming he is home and not at the Blizzard. In trying to turn off the snow, Reg accidentally opens the ape cages, and they come to join the skaters on the ice.

Through the confusion, he sees a woman with long red hair skating naked, and wonders if this is Lady Yeti. He goes to skate after her and gets caught in the confusion again.

At last, the snow stops, and Reg sees Lady Yeti, now back in her costume. Badger’s father is hugging her around the waist. His shirt is gone, and he is trying and failing to unzip the yeti costume.

Badger then appears driving the Zamboni. He drives straight at his father, but then swerves away at the last moment. They watch as “Badger filled in the gashes from so many skate blades, line by line, until the rink became a perfect mirror once again, frozen and blank” (155).