Clear

As John’s leg improves, Ivar shows him more of the island, including the old church and Baillie house. John is worried that Ivar will find the gun in his box inside the Baillie house before he can get to it, but Ivar is always watching John, or he’s gone out of the house and John doesn’t know where it is, making it challenging for John to retrieve the gun. Ivar gestures to John that he never goes to the Baillie house. Ivar notices that John begins to shiver at night, so he starts to knit him socks and a hat.

Ivar and John begin to add verbs, adverbs, and nouns to their shared dictionary that John fashions out of John’s sea-washed paper. They use gestures and language to find their words for each thing, and their communication improves. What thrills Ivar is how happy John seems to be when Ivar returns from being out of the house, and how John gives him an account—mostly in English but with some of Ivar’s language spliced in—of his day. Due to John’s enthusiasm, Ivar begins to think that John returns his feelings of affection.

As the second week ends, the weather goes wild, and Ivar finds that while he’s doing his chores and work, he’s always thinking about John, worried that when he returns to the house, John will somehow be gone.