Orphan Island

In contrast to Ess and Sam, Loo is much more hyper, messy, and loud. He also complains a lot more; for example, he refuses to eat eggs for breakfast like everyone else. He doesn’t mind getting rid of his shoes, but when he sees the pile, he starts throwing all the shoes around haphazardly and won’t stop when asked. Eventually, he gets distracted playing with sand, and Jinny and Ess put the pile back together. Jinny counts the shoes, which she has never done before—in total, she counts 40 pairs. Most are very small, but a few pairs are larger, suggesting that some children (such as Abbie Ellis) came to the island when they were older. Jinny finds one larger pair of shoes that fit her, and she puts them on, imagining that they might be Abbie’s.

Loo and Ess find a snake, which scares them both, even though Jinny previously explained to Ess that the snakes on this island aren’t dangerous. However, when Jinny investigates this snake, it’s different from any others she’s seen before. It hisses at the kids and is poised as if ready to attack them. Jinny leads the younger kids back to camp.

A few mornings later, Jak and Oz wake everyone up because they’ve caught an “inkfish” (octopus) and need help hauling it up to camp. Jinny explains to Ess and Loo that an inkfish is fun because it produces ink that the children use to draw on stones. Since they don’t have pens and paper, they can’t usually draw or write things that last: They can draw in the sand, but it gets washed away, and they can carve with knives, but this is a lot harder than drawing and produces crude results. They don’t catch inkfish very often—it’s been several years since the last one. The kids bring the inkfish up and then extract the ink sack. Ben divides the ink into bowls and passes rocks around. Each child can now create an artwork that lasts.

Most of the younger kids immediately set to work, though some of them (like Loo) just scribble and don’t make anything remarkable. Jinny thinks this is okay because at least they’re enjoying themselves. However, she feels a lot of pressure because she doesn’t get the opportunity to draw often. She doesn’t know what to do for her one chance at drawing. She finally draws her name and makes a circle around it, but it looks bad, so she turns the rock over to the other blank side and considers what to draw next.

Meanwhile, Nat has created an amazing, lifelike face on her own stone, but it’s an old-looking face that doesn’t resemble anyone Nat’s ever seen on the island or in a book. The other kids are astounded that she made something so beautiful and wonder whose face it is. Nat says it’s a face she sees in her imagination, which might be a memory, but if it is, she’s not sure who it is. Everyone is impressed by Nat’s art skills because they don’t get to practice drawing often, so most of their rocks only have simple pictures on them, such as flowers or stars. However, Jinny is more interested in how clearly Nat has managed to remember someone’s face, likely her mother’s. She feels alone in this because she hasn’t told anyone about Abbie’s letter to her own mom.

Jinny returns to her cabin and uses the rest of the ink to write, not to draw. On the back of Abbie’s letter (which is blank), she writes,

Dear reader who finds this, if I am gone,

My name is Jinny.

I lived here on this island.

I loved it.

I stayed.

I held on (191-92).

Unlike the drawing, Jinny feels satisfied just to have written a letter, even if it’s not very long or complicated and even if no one ever finds or reads it.

For dinner, Ben serves the inkfish along with small amounts of various leftovers. Everyone asks why he hasn’t prepared a proper meal like he usually does; he replies that food is becoming scarce. The chickens are laying fewer eggs, and they didn’t catch any other fish today besides the inkfish (octopus). Therefore, everyone should eat what they want tonight, and then tomorrow everyone will go on a fetch to find more food. Loo doesn’t want to eat anything but plums, and Jinny allows him to take the last one. Ess is then upset because she wanted plums too, but none are left. She leaves the table, claiming to not be hungry. The other kids think Ess is envious because Jinny is now spending more time seeing to Loo’s needs.

In the morning, Ess has already left the cabin before Jinny wakes up, which is unusual. Also, the clouds and the appearance of the sky have changed. Jinny finds Ess hiding under a table with Sam—apparently, the two are becoming friends. Jinny remembers how she became close to Deen around this age, after her own Elder left and she learned to bond with the other kids instead. Nevertheless, Jinny feels envious of Sam for taking some of Ess’s affection away from her.

The children go to collect chicken eggs and then honey from the beehives. Jinny deals with the bees and honey while others play in the background. Jak and Oz are roughhousing, chasing a cat and being loud, which will likely disturb the bees if they come closer. This makes Jinny nervous. She notices Loo and Ess starting to play and run as well and struggles to watch them while also collecting honey. Soon, Ess is chasing the cat and bolting straight toward Jinny, who is holding a honeycomb with a bunch of bees on it. Jinny panics and hurls the honeycomb away from her and Ess. However, Jak and Oz run into it, and the bees sting them, knocking both boys down. Jinny races to them and swats the bees away, getting stung as well. She panics, as if they might die from bee stings. Ben then decides the fetch is over, and they all head back to camp. Ben removes the stingers from the boys, and they go rest. They’re fine, but Jinny scared everyone by freaking out. Ben once again offers to talk to Jinny, but she won’t try to explain what she’s feeling to him. He leaves to cook dinner.