In the brief Chapter 15, Velutha, naked and on the run, completes his midnight swim across the swift and uncertain currents of the Meenachal River. His strokes are powerful and sure. His affair with Ammu exposed, his family denying him, his job gone, his life in jeopardy, he wants only to find refuge in the History House, where he and Ammu met for their assignations. Despite his anxiety, Velutha, the “God of Small Things,” is still defiantly optimistic, strangely happy, certain that somehow everything will work out.

Chapter 16 takes place a few hours later. It is after midnight. Sophie joined Estha and Rahel in running away, demanding she be allowed to go with them on their adventure as a way to make their parents feel even worse about driving them all away. The three sit in the dark along the river bank. They climb into the little boat that Velutha helped make seaworthy, and they set off across the river to their destination, History House. Just as the boat edges out into the deep water, however, it collides with a stray log floating downriver. The boat tips over and dumps the children into the fetid, swirling water.