Son of a Trickster

Jared pointedly ignores the ape men and the fireflies still circling Sarah’s head. Jared visits the Jakses, who are getting ready to sell their house and move in with Mrs. Jaks’ brothers on the reservation. Jared cries with Sarah: “It was sudden and he couldn’t stop it and the ache of everything, everything, everything, the sadness of it, the unfairness of it” (230). The fireflies start speaking to him in French and then start talking about “the shadow of infinity” and transcendence (231). Alone with Mrs. Jaks, Jared asks her about their time in “that weird place” (233), the night David abused him. She insists that he was sleepwalking and tells him: “I’m glad you came to me when you were lost [...] I would have been lost without you” (233). That evening, Jared tells Sarah he loves her, but she is suspicious of his motives for saying it. They argue, and he stomps home to find Baby waiting for him.

He can pet her, and his inner voice reminds him: “You need to ask yourself how she’s back from the dead, dumb-ass” (235). Jared refuses to listen to it and chases after Baby when she runs into the woods.