The Great Unexpected

One day, a boy’s body falls from a tree, knocking Naomi over. He is close to her age, around 12. Suddenly, the body speaks, asking her if he is dead. Because he can talk, Naomi assumes he is alive. He isn’t sure how to determine if he is alive, and he asks if he’s in a place called Rooks Orchard; Naomi has never heard of Rooks Orchard and tells him he is not. He sits up and opens his eyes, exclaiming, “Oh no!” and then falls back, apparently dead again.

Just then, Naomi’s best friend, Lizzie Scatterding, arrives, and she is shocked by the body. They speculate about the boy’s origins and consider what to do next. Suddenly, he grunts and asks if he is “here” or “there,” and Naomi tells him he is “here,” though he doesn’t know how to be sure. They implore him to get up and share his name, but he will not, telling them only not to take “the gold,” but they see no gold. He opens his eyes and tells them his name is Finn.

While Naomi and Lizzie deal with Finn in America, in Ireland, old Sybil Kavanagh finishes writing, and she and her companion, Miss Pilpenny, laugh about the “fine revenge” she will have. Miss Pilpenny asks if Sybil would like a “murder tonight,” and they agree to it. Sybil giggles and then wheezes, and Miss Pilpenny rubs her back.

Upon learning the girls have neither candy nor soda, Finn leaps up and declares that he’ll be on his way. They ask where he lives because they’ve never seen him before, and he says that he’s staying “up the hill a piece” (13). They are shocked to see him walk toward Black Dog Night Hill because only the “dim Dimmenses” live there.

Lizzie and Naomi go to the creek to dig for clay. Lizzie babbles about Finn, and Naomi explains to the reader that Lizzie has lived with a foster family, the Cupwrights, since her parents died in a nearby town, Ravensworth, two years ago. Lizzie talks about her expectation that they will adopt her, something they mentioned when she arrived. Lizzie has a practice of going to “stand on the moon awhile” (17), an imaginative exercise that relaxes her and gives her a more manageable perspective of her problems. When Naomi tries it, however, she sees billions of people with all their problems; it does not relax her at all.

Mr. Charles Dingle, Sybil’s solicitor, arrives and notes that she has removed all the portraits of someone he calls “the Master,” and Sybil declares that the Master was an arrogant and cruel man. She refers to how they used to tolerate this man rather than starve. Mr. Dingle reviews her papers and says that he will have to investigate a few things. She is grateful to him, and she says that she’d like Mr. Dingle to go to America and “pave the way” (20). She implies that she is near death but says that she is prepared now that her revenge is “in place.”

Nula is from Ireland, and she and Joe took Naomi in when she was three. At home, Naomi tells them about the body falling from the tree. His name catches Nula’s attention because it’s a name rarely heard in Blackbird Tree, though she has known many Finns in her lifetime, she says; Nula advises Naomi to stay away from him.

Naomi recounts the time her school got a new teacher. The teacher asked students to write about their families. Their essays described foster families, dead parents, alcoholic uncles, and so on until the teacher asked them to stop reading them aloud. Feeling guilty because she was reading when the teacher stopped them, Naomi told Nula she couldn’t go to school the next day because she had turned into a fairy. The teacher left not long after, telling people the children were “too tragic.” The children, though, felt normal; they just wanted typical things, like someone to care for and feed them. Naomi wanted to feel that things—like her teacher leaving—were not her fault because she’s learned that unexpected events are typically bad.

Lizzie and Naomi climb the hill, discussing the rumors they’ve heard about the place. When they hear a dog, Naomi climbs the nearest tree. They hear a rifle shot and see Finn carrying the rifle. Lizzie explains that Naomi is afraid of dogs because Naomi’s father “got eaten” by a dog, and it nearly chewed off Naomi’s arm; this is why Naomi’s arm is “shriveled” in appearance. Naomi decides she likes Finn, even though when she asks where he’s from, he avoids the question, saying, “It’s a long story […]. It’s complicated” (34).

Sybil sits in her wheelchair with her dogs, Sadie and Maddie, at her feet. She thinks of her youth in the village of Duffayn. Miss Pilpenny announces that she has a visitor.