The Light Pirate

After Lucas and Kirby leave for work the next morning, Wanda goes into her father’s closet and takes out a milk crate full of relics from Frida’s life, including photographs, books on architecture, “a wedding ring that doesn’t fit any of her fingers” and “a nylon flag, so sun-worn the black is turning brown, a jaunty skull and crossbones smiling back at her” (113). The crate is supposed to be a secret, but Wanda turns to its contents for answers because her father and brother are saddened whenever she asks them about her mother.

The mischievous 10-year-old decides to beat her boredom by breaking her father’s biggest rule and going to the Edge, where the ocean meets the crumbling boardwalk. She rides her bike past abandoned and ruined houses. The only part of town that currently has electricity houses the municipal buildings, including the school Wanda will have to return to tomorrow. Wanda has a seat on the crumbling street overlooking the ocean and gazes out at the waves. Wanda has no friends her age because the superstitious inhabitants of Rudder blame the girl named after the hurricane for starting their town’s slow death. A group of four sixth-graders calls her names, and a boy named Mick pushes her into the ocean. A girl named Brie tells the boy to leave Wanda alone. Brie’s twin, Corey, holds Wanda’s head underwater. Wanda’s body begins to glow, and the light spreads “until it looks like the entire ocean is shining” (122). The boy releases her, and the alarmed bullies hurry away. Wanda isn’t sure what happened, but she senses a change within her.

When Wanda returns home, her father and brother are already there. She admits that she went to the Edge but claims that she went swimming. Lucas can tell that she’s lying and that there’s something different about her. Even though Rudder has fallen into disarray and its population steadily shrinks, Lucas sees beauty in the flora and fauna as nature seeks to reclaim the town. That night, Lucas drives to a local dive bar and reunites with his high school sweetheart, Gillian, after three years apart. Gillian is in town to sell her family’s old house. As Lucas listens to her describe her studies in Chicago and her vacations in Europe, he feels as though she is “telling him stories about a world that doesn’t know it’s ending” (131). Gillian invites him to her old house, and they have sex. He doesn’t tell her that he is planning to apply to college—not because he wants to leave Rudder, but because he “wants to learn how to save it” (134).

The only linemen left in Rudder are Kirby, Lucas, and Brenda. They work as hard as they can to restore power after the frequent storms, but they are woefully underfunded. When Kirby finally manages to reach someone at his senator’s office, the woman who answers his call is unable to help him. She explains, “We’re trying to save cities, not towns. We just don’t have the resources. You want my personal opinion, I’d say it’s time to move” (138). Kirby has no intention of taking her advice because he knows that Rudder is doomed if he leaves.

Wanda doesn’t feel safe at school, and the curious girl has learned to keep her questions to herself because she doesn’t want to draw the other children’s attention. Kirby doesn’t trust her to stay home unsupervised since she went to the Edge, so he arranges for Wanda to go to Phyllis’s house after school. Wanda is pleasantly surprised by Phyllis’s matter-of-fact personality, her patience with Wanda’s countless questions, and her familiarity with nature. Phyllis invites Wanda to help her collect samples from a nearby grove as part of her field research. The retired biology teacher explains that she studies changes in the environment, which has implications for the way humans live and for potential new organisms that may evolve. After just one afternoon with Phyllis, Wanda is so enthralled with the new insights she’s gained that she would gladly “follow this woman anywhere” (147).

Kirby dreads Wanda’s birthday because it reminds him of Frida’s death. He places his late wife on a pedestal, pretending that “they would be unconditionally happy if only she were still here” (149). Wanda doesn’t have any friends her age, so the only people at her party are her father, her brother, Brenda, Phyllis, and a few of Kirby’s friends. Phyllis gives Wanda a miniature field kit, and they happily examine it together. Looking at his daughter, Kirby realizes that “she is the future of this place” and wishes that didn’t seem like a curse (151).

The principal of Wanda’s school holds a solemn assembly to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Wanda. He also announces that the fifth and sixth grades will be combined because the sixth-grade teacher has left Rudder. Sudden disappearances of this kind are common in the town, where the homes are “so worthless the banks don’t even bother foreclosing” (153). In the newly combined classroom, Wanda admires Brie’s grace and poise but quickly averts her gaze when the older girl sees her looking.

Wanda’s afternoons with Phyllis are a welcome respite from the anxiety of her days at school. The woman teaches her a number of survival skills, including purifying water, planting seeds, and using tools. One day, the pair discovers that a predator has killed one of Phyllis’s free-range chickens. The girl bursts into tears, temporarily overwhelmed by the “necessary tension between knowing how nature works in theory and witnessing it” (157). Phyllis consoles her by explaining that the chicken lived a good life.

Lucas keeps his college applications a secret because he expects to be rejected and doesn’t want to disappoint anyone. He used to think that college wasn’t for him, but he gradually realized that the people with education and power are the ones whose poor choices are killing his home. He begins his application essay by writing, “I live in a dying town called Rudder, in a dying state called Florida. Most of the people who leave this place want to escape it. I want to save it” (159). Wanda interrupts his writing and says that she had a nightmare. He tucks her back into bed and reluctantly stays in their shared room at her request because he is trying “to be the kind of big brother that Flip should have had” (161).

One night, Kirby goes to pick up dinner at his family’s usual pizzeria and sees a sign in the window that says, “GONE NORTH GOD BLESS” (165). The abandoned restaurant fills him with a sudden and overwhelming loneliness, and he wakes up an unhoused man sleeping nearby just for a sense of human connection. Kirby gives the man some money, saying that the approaching storm could be bad, and the man replies that it already is.

When Kirby returns home, the news announces the approach of Hurricane Braylen. Wanda asks how storms’ names are chosen and why her mother named her Wanda. Kirby feels guilty about the baggage that his daughter carries because of her name and struggles to find an answer. Lucas intervenes and tells her, “Because she knew right away that you were a powerful girl and she wanted you to have a powerful name” (167). Wanda accepts this explanation.