The title of Chapter 2 is “The Drifting Twins” The chapter begins by speculating “two days and two nights.” The repetition of the number two in the second chapter is relevant to the playfair cipher used in this chapter which is in the second footnote of the chapter. The narrator then describes the food that S. eats on board: “He is fed adequately, though not well.” This is the condition that S. lives in perpetually. He subsists, but feels no higher purpose because he has not yet uncovered any aspects of his identity.
S decides not to communicate with the sailors as “Those black threads revolt him, terrify him, raise questions he is not yet willing to ask, even to himself.” This is among the first times that the stitches on the sailors mouths are mentioned. Here, Dorst highlights the comfort in oblivion, as well as the fear that it brings along.
Eric tells Jen that this chapter is based on The Santana March with regard to the plot of “escape attempt.”