Summary
In 1956, ten-year-old Kya continues to live out her isolated existence in the marsh. Over time, Pa disappears from the shack for longer periods, and eventually, Kya accepts that Pa will likely never return. Without Pa's disability money, Kya runs dangerously low on supplies. Even though she is desperate and hungry, Kya does not want assistance from the state, as she "can't leave the gulls, the heron, the shack," because "the marsh is all the family" she has. When Kya's lamp runs out of kerosene, she gathers mussels on the beach and takes her catch to Jumpin's gas station. Jumpin' offers Kya fifty cents for one sack of mussels and a full tank of gas for the other. Kya happily accepts and arranges a business deal to sell mussels on a first-come, first-serve basis and shops exclusively at Jumpin's. Kya wakes up early each morning to gather mussels and oysters to sell, sometimes even sleeping out under the stars to ensure she beats the other sellers. She begins to settle into a comfortable, though isolated, existence.
One day, Kya arrives at Jumpin's station to find that another seller beat her with their catch of mussels. With no money or supplies, she spends eight hours fishing and smokes her catch in Pa's old smokehouse. Though the fish look nearly inedible, Jumpin' tells Kya he will take them on "consignment," promising to pay Kya if the fish sell. That night, Jumpin' tells his wife, Mabel, about Kya's predicament, explaining that Kya is alone and starving. Jumpin' and Mabel resolve to help Kya, reasoning that some church members will be willing to donate extra clothes, food, and supplies to a girl in need. They decide to tell Kya the donations are payment for the smoked fish. Kya also asks Mabel for gardening advice, and Mabel provides Kya with detailed instructions and a few seeds to get her started.
Time goes on, and Pa remains absent. Now living a life of total solitude, Kya often looks for Tate when she sails through the marsh in Pa's boat, though she does not speak to him. One day when Kya ventures to Point Beach to peruse rare shells, she sees a group of five girls and four boys from town joyfully spending the day together. Among them is Chase Andrews. Kya observes the group from afar, reflecting on her isolation and the supposed importance of camaraderie between women.
In 1960, Kya is fourteen years old and entirely self-sufficient. One day, while fishing at the lagoon near her shack, Kya hears somebody in the brush behind her, so she quickly hides. Later that evening, Kya finds a rare feather from a great blue heron sticking straight out of a stump. Kya and Tate exchange gifts, leaving feathers on the stump; thinking of how birds court each other with gifts, Kya wonders if the boy might be wooing her. Tate leaves a note one day, but Kya, who only attended school one day in her life, cannot read it. When Kya returns to the stump, Tate, now around eighteen, awaits her. Although Kya is nervous about being around another person after years of intense solitude, she also feels drawn to Tate. Deciding she does not want their contact to end, Kya offers the swan feather, and Tate accepts. As he leaves, Tate offers to teach Kya how to read.
In 1969, Sheriff Jackson and Deputy Purdue receive Chase Andrew's autopsy report, which shows that Chase died of trauma consistent with an extensive fall. The sheriff and deputy conclude that Chase died at the fire tower and deduce someone must have covered their tracks and fingerprints. The lab report also shows "foreign fibers" on Chase's jacket. The detectives suspect Kya, but resolve to gather more information before obtaining a warrant.
Analysis
Jumpin' and Mabel are the first and only reliable adults in Kya's life. Though separated from her by Kya's isolation and Barkley Cove's racial segregation, Mabel and Jumpin' serve as surrogate parents for Kya. Though Kya's isolation hinders her ability to connect with others, it also has a positive side, as solitude prevents Kya from internalizing the town's racial prejudices. Kya's ability to relate to Jumpin' and Mabel ultimately ensures her survival, as Jumpin' and Mabel provide for Kya's physical and emotional needs.
Southern cooking is a common motif used throughout the text. Grits, a simple corn hominy dish, represents Kya's path to self-sufficiency and survival. Grits are the only meal Kya knows how to make; she doesn't "know how to do life without grits" and becomes desperate when her stores run out. Kya initially cooks grits into an inedible mass, but as her confidence and independence grow, her grits become palatable, representing her ability to care for herself.
When Kya's father fails to return, she initially considers walking into town to "turn [her]self in to the authorities," swayed by the promise of food, shelter, and an education. However, Kya ultimately decides to stay in the lagoon because she cannot "leave the gulls, the heron, the shack; Kya believes the marsh is "all the family" she has. Kya's decision is important in several ways. First, when Kya considers joining society, she uses the phrase "turn myself in to the authorities," indicating a mistrust for authority and a belief that joining Barkley Cove is equivalent to imprisonment. This phrasing also foreshadows Kya's eventual arrest: her relationship with Chase, who represents Barkley Cove, ultimately results in her arrest and imprisonment.
Second, from a young age, Kya establishes the value of connecting with nature. Kya desires a family more than anything and prioritizes her relationships with animals and the environment over connections with people, creating her own definition of family.
When Kya finds the feather of a wild turkey in the stump, she recalls a disturbing memory where she witnessed several wild turkeys attack a female member of their flock, killing the bird. This violent act of nature is an allegory for Barkley Cove turning on Kya. She recalls that Jodie said, "if a bird becomes different from the others – disfigured or wounded – it is more likely to attract a predator, so the rest of the flock will kill it." Similarly, Kya's isolation in the marsh made her too different to fit in with the rest of organized society. In response to Kya's difference, the people of Barkley Cove shun her, creating rumors about her and ultimately accusing her of Chase Andrew's murder.
While looking through Ma's makeup, Kya finds a bottle of pink nail polish and remembers the day Ma brought it home from town. On that day, Ma painted all of their nails and toenails pink. Afterward, Ma took Kya and her sisters out on Pa's boat. This anecdote is the only occasion in Kya's life where she felt camaraderie with other women, though Mabel and Ma both insist "women need one another more than they need men."
Kya recalls an incident where a group of boys came to her house in the marsh, "ran across the yard...galloped full speed to the porch and tagged the door with their palms." This harassment is the first example of how the gossip and rumors about Kya put her in physical danger and foreshadows Chase's exploitation of Kya. The boys who tag Kya's house are both fascinated and fearful of Kya, whom they cannot understand.
Interwoven within the boys' coming-of-age ritual is illicit sexuality. Like Tate fears, the boys' fascination with Kya turns sexual, as they all compete to see who will "be the first to get her cherry," meaning becoming her first sexual partner. To the boys competing for Kya, courtship and masculinity are intertwined with novelty and sexuality.
Kya compares her budding relationship with Tate to the courtship patterns of birds she observes. She trusts Tate because "it didn't fit that anyone who liked birds would be mean." Kya's connection with nature, particularly birds, helps her assess danger in interpersonal relationships and understand other people's motivations. Kya's internal calculus of Tate's decency is an early example of the theme of nature and wildness.
During Kya and Tate's reading lessons, it becomes clear that Kya is highly intelligent; her ignorance results from a missed education. Because Kya connects with nature, she can see the world through a poet's eyes. Learning to read also allows Kya to create new connections with her family by learning their names, dates of birth, and even favorite poems. Learning to read opens the creative process for Kya—she begins to process her world using poetry, and she vows that "if she ever became a poet, she'd make the message clear." This statement foreshadows Kya's future career as a pseudonymous poet.
