Orphan Island

Loo and Ess are resting together, but Loo is still mad at Jinny for slapping him. She says she’ll go get them some books, but in the book cabin, she becomes distracted searching for more letters Abbie Ellis may have written and hidden. She doesn’t find any, though.

Jinny then realizes that she’s bleeding between her legs. (She has begun her menstrual cycle but doesn’t know what this is; the books on the island don’t mention it, and kids usually leave before they hit puberty.) Jinny sees the blood as another sign from the island. She fastens some rags around herself to soak up the blood and then puts clean clothes on over the rags. Jinny doesn’t tell anyone about the blood or her theory that she’s the reason behind the various new dangers on the island (such as lack of food, scary snakes, and a different-looking sky).

Jinny returns to her cabin and apologizes to Ess and Loo—she forgot the books because she got distracted by something she had to fix. Ess can tell that Jinny’s upset about something, so she gives her the bracelet that Jinny made her when she arrived using Ess’s old shoelaces. At first, Jinny doesn’t recognize it, but Ess explains that it’s “Mama” and it’ll make Jinny feel better the way it did for her.

The sky and clouds continue to change, but after several days, Jinny’s bleeding stops. She wonders if the island is slowly healing itself. She asks Ben to watch the younger kids while she goes on a fetch alone. Ess wants to come, but Jinny says she needs alone time. Ess worries that Jinny is going to leave on the boat, but Jinny promises to never leave.

Jinny hikes to the cliffs. She collects some snaps and then notices that the wind on the cliffs feels different than usual. These are the same cliffs where they used to cliff jump and the wind magically placed them safely back on top again each time, never letting anyone or anything fall down to the water. Jinny drops some snaps and then falls down to the water. This scares her because it’s another dangerous change on the island. She runs back to camp and tells Ben about the cliff winds; they both agree that it’s not safe for the younger kids to go there while this persists. Ben agrees that changes have been occurring, although he doesn’t know if it’s Jinny’s “fault” or what they can do about it even if it is.

Jinny loses “Mama,” the bracelet that she made for Ess and that Ess gave back to Jinny to wear. She can’t find it in her cabin or anywhere nearby, so she thinks she might have lost it on the cliffs. Ess wants to go check, but Jinny and Ben both know the cliffs are no longer safe. Rather than tell her this, however, they argue that they shouldn’t go to the cliffs today because it might rain. Ess claims that she needs to use the bathroom and wanders off. Jinny and Loo search the beach for the bracelet for an hour but have no luck. When they return to their cabin, Ess is gone. Jinny realizes that she probably went to the cliffs to search for the bracelet. Jinny and the rest of the children set off in search of her.

The group spots Ess climbing the cliffs. Jinny orders her several times to come down, but Ess keeps going until she reaches a spot where she gets stuck and feels scared. Jinny starts climbing up to get her. However, once Jinny has almost reached her, Loo screams from down below. Ess tells Jinny she’ll be okay and that Jinny should go to Loo, which she then does. Loo has been bitten by a rattlesnake. The group rushes him home, and Ben finds a nonfiction book with general instructions for snake bites, though not specific advice for this type of snake, which none of the kids are familiar with. Therefore, they just do what the book says, which is to tie something around him between the bite and his heart to prevent the poison from traveling there. Besides this, the book only says to keep him still and not move him around. Some types of snake bites also require a special medicine, but they don’t have it on the island or know if this is one of those types. Jinny then sees Ess and realizes that she was able to get down off the cliffs by herself after all. Jinny adds to her letter that she held on for “too long.”

Loo doesn’t seem to be getting better. Jinny blames herself for his snakebite and worries that he’ll die if he stays there. Therefore, she carries him to the beach where the boat is. The others follow her, and Ben reminds her that the book said not to move him. However, Jinny seems to think that his best hope for survival is for her to take him and try to find civilization, wherever that is, because they can probably get the special snakebite medicine there. It starts snowing, which Jinny thinks is maybe the “sky falling,” as the island lore warned would happen if more than nine children stayed there at once.

Jinny apologizes to the others for “breaking” the island. Ess is devastated that Jinny must leave, but she explains that it’s her duty to save Loo since it’s her fault he got hurt, plus she took him on as her Care by staying. Jinny and Loo then leave in the boat, which pilots itself, although they don’t know where they’re going or what they’ll find when they arrive.