Beyond the Bright Sea

Osh, Maggie, and Crow sail to Penikese, and find no trace of the supposed gamekeeper. While Osh and Maggie forage on the island, Crow heads back to the leprosarium. Once again, she hears a noise, piquing her curiosity. She discovers that the door is unlocked. Opening one door, she is shocked to see a man “rolled up in a bedsheet, from his chin to his angles, and tied tight in a rope, too” (111). The man is visibly terrified, sobbing, and filthy. Crow sets him free, and gives him a moment to clean himself off in the ocean water. The man, Sloan, tells Osh and Maggie them that he is the real gamekeeper, and recounts the story of what happened to him. When Sloan went to New Bedford for supplies, a large man appeared, asked him for a ride to Cuttyhunk, and then demanded Sloan take him to Penikese. The man was clearly looking for something; he grew upset when Sloan had nothing to tell him. The man bound and gagged Sloan, leaving him stranded on the island.

They prepare to leave Penikese, but Crow goes off on her own to look at the remaining cottages. In one of them, she sees carvings of a lamb and a feather. In a flash, she remembers the cryptic letter that Osh showed her, which mentioned both of these items.

Back on Cuttyhunk, they feed and clothe Sloan, and send for the police. Word about what has happened spreads around the small island. Sloan warns them that the big man was cruel and violent. Crow asks Sloan what the man was digging for, but Sloan has scant information. However, he does drop another clue: the large man asked Sloan where a woman he called the “leper” used to live (121). Osh and Maggie take Sloan to Maggie’s cottage to keep an eye on him, while Crow spends the night alone in the cottage she shares with Osh.

Crow looks again at the cinnamon box while thinking about the carvings of the lamb and the feather, and wonders about her past. The next morning, she tells Osh she thinks she has found her real parents. He feels slightly angered by this, and asks Crow if he does not seem real to her. Crow consoles Osh, telling him that while he is her father, she wants to know about her origins and her mother. She tells him about finding the carving of the feather and the lamb inside one of the cottages, symbols that matched what they found on the gravestones.

Putting it all together, Crow tells Osh her theory: Her parents came from Africa or South America—somewhere people have dark skin—and that she is the second baby Susanna had. Instead of the baby being stillborn and buried, Crow thinks that Susanna put the baby in a boat and sent it away from the island. This would also mean that she has a brother, Jason, who may still be living in the area. Osh admits that her theory could be true.