The Mosquito Coast

By the time the group departs in the morning, there is only enough ice left to be transported in their backpacks. Though the remaining distance to their destination is still yet unknown, Allie insists that they continue. Transitioning downhill, they come to a village notably lacking in resources, and Charlie is dismayed by the lack of tidiness and order that he observes. Despite being told several times to go away by an Indigenous representative of the village, Allie insists that he has brought them a gift, and attempts to produce the ice from one of the backpacks. No ice is left. When Allie puts out his hand to offer it, all he produces is a handful of water. Unimpressed, the representative repeats his direction to go away. Allie orders his children and the men to remain until they are given food and water, incensed by what he calls the villagers’ “Neolithic hostility” (218).

They encounter three white men with guns. Allie chatters on to them about Jeronimo, bragging about all he has managed to accomplish and all the resources and conveniences they enjoy. Allie incorrectly presumes that the armed men are being held prisoner in service to the villagers, and the men play along with his ruse, absorbing information about Jeronimo. Allie readily admits that they have no guns or weapons of any kind. As they start their return trip, Charlie challenges Allie, who is prattling on with pride at his accomplishment, delighted that the villagers were so impressed by the ice. “What ice?” Charlie asks. Charlie does not continue to push, but Jerry is prompted to confirm that their mission was a success and is rewarded with a piggyback ride back to camp for his fealty.

Charlie spends the walk home contemplating his father’s lie. It is impossible for Charlie to deny what he witnessed, and he is stunned at his father’s ability to contradict the reality of what happened. “His lie made me lonelier than any lie I had ever heard,” he says (226). Charlie begins to hope that something drastic will have happened at Jeronimo in their absence to distract from the display he believes Allie will put on for Mother when they return. When they reach Jeronimo, Charlie’s wish has been granted. Mother is upset and reports that the Maywit family have gone, having departed with the missionary Struss who returned to Jeronimo. Struss had been to Seville and accused the Foxes of blasphemy and corrupting the Sevillians with science. Allie behaves as if he is not surprised and expresses certainty that the Maywits will return once they see what the world is like elsewhere. He minimizes the extent to which their mission was a disaster by saying, “We had shrinkage. I knew it was a mistake to lug so much of it all that far” (231). Charlie is relieved that his father does not entirely misrepresent the events of their trip.

Charlie and his siblings retreat to protective secrecy of The Acre as often as they can. Allie continues to pontificate about the dangers of belief in a higher power and organized religion. He recommits himself to coring into the earth to harness geothermal energy. As time passes, the river begins narrowing; there has been no rain for months, and ice production has dwindled. Though The Acre’s spring still thrives, the produce garden at Jeronimo suffers without sufficient irrigation, and the plants begin to succumb to dryness. Without enough water to run it, Allie shuts down Fat Boy, allowing the fire to go out.

As the chapter closes, visitors arrive.

The trio of armed white men from the village across the mountain have found Jeronimo. They arrive toting their guns and saying little. The men’s presumptuous behavior indicate that they are not merely paying a friendly visit. Allie begins to chatter on with a lie about a plague of white ants which have infested the village, ordering all dwellings other than his own torn down. He tries to persuade the men that the weather and the ant problem warrant their departure, then changes tactics to suggest instead that they stay when his attempts at encouraging them to leave are unsuccessful. The men finally declare that they will leave when they are ready and not before.

Wanting them as far from his family as possible, Allie suggests that the men spend the night in the storage room, which is in fact Fat Boy. In the quiet of night, Allie enlists Charlie’s help, and for the first time that Charlie can remember, his father admits that he has made a terrible mistake. In bragging about Jeronimo to the men, he had made their settlement a target. “I’m not often wrong,” he says, “but when I am, I’m as wrong as can be” (249). While the men are inside, Allie instructs Charlie to climb up to the top of Fat Boy and close the trap door. After he descends, Allie directs Charlie’s attention to the kindling in Fat Boy’s chimney, claiming that someone must have left the fire burning. Charlie realizes as his father lights the kindling that Allie plans to freeze the men to death.

“Start counting, Charlie. By the time you get to three hundred, there won’t be any men in there,” he says (251). As Fat Boy begins to chill, the men clamber to get out and fire their guns. A tremendous explosion blasts Fat Boy to pieces, decimating all Jeronimo and a significant portion of the surrounding jungle.