St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Sawtooth lives at the Out-to-Sea Retirement Community, which is a collection of refurbished boats all docked and turned into living quarters for senior citizens. He gets a notice that he has been assigned a mainlander who is doing community service as part of the “No Elder Person Is an Island Volunteer Program!” (179). He is upset by this and does not want a visit from someone forced to be his companion.

However, this attitude changes when his companion, a girl named Augie, shows up for the first time. She reminds him of someone he once knew—perhaps one of his granddaughters.

She tells him that she requested him specifically because he is an amputee; one of his legs is missing. He quickly grows to rely on his time with her because “he needs the girl to sit and measure time with him, the way the neighbor woman needs her prescription mirror so that she doesn’t forget her own face” (180).

He knows that Augie is coming today, so he tries to make sure everything is perfect. He yells at Miss Markopoulis, his neighbor, for feeding the stingrays because he knows the girl is afraid of them. Although the retirement community is sealed off from the open ocean by a seawall, the rays still drift in along with trash and other flotsam. His neighbor calls them her angels and continues to feed them despite the rules against chumming.

In anticipation of the girl’s visit, Sawtooth puts on his dress pants and cleans up his boat. He also sets out his prescription Demerol where she can see it, because he knows she has been stealing a few pills during each visit. This fact doesn’t hurt him; instead, he always takes care to go to the bathroom and leave her alone to steal what she wants. He likes when she steals “sentimental things” (186). He sets out the pills like a fisherman baiting a trap.

He is not alone; the other residents put up with other things to keep their buddies around, like Mr. Kaufman whose arsonist keeps setting his kitchen on fire. Having the girl come around helps Sawtooth cope with the silence of the retirement community, which “is made bearable by the knowledge that sound is coming” (187).

Outside, he hears his neighbor Ned calling for help, but Sawtooth knows he is faking his fall. Another neighbor, Zenaida, who prays to a weathered mermaid bust called Undersea Mary that used to be on the prow of a boat, promises to pray for Ned. Sawtooth goes back inside, wondering how he ended up in a community with these people.

Finally, at a quarter to four, the bus arrives with the buddies. Augie asks permission to come aboard and enters the boat. He is happy to see that she is in a good mood, although he puts on a show of being grumpy.

She cuts through his small talk and asks to see the stump of his amputated leg. She is fascinated by his stories of phantom limb syndrome. He rolls up his pant leg to show her. The girl holds her fingers away from the stump and asks if he can feel it. He says yes, prompting her to kneel and simulate running her tongue up and down the invisible leg.

She is pleased to hear he can feel her, and muses that “your body is haunted […] like a house” (192).

When he inquires about the length of her community service sentence, Augie tells him that she has gotten her punishment reduced and will be leaving him soon. She asks him to sign her form, proving she visited.

Sawtooth is devastated to hear that she will soon no longer be coming to visit him. He puts off signing the paper, asking if she’s hungry and then retreating to the bathroom to at least give her time to steal what she wants.

Meanwhile, across the marina, a ray gets sucked into the Wave Assuager, which keeps the waters of the community calm. It breaks the machine, sending a big wave across the community. It knocks Undersea Mary back into the water and injures Ned.

When it hits Sawtooth’s boat, he falls out of the bathroom and knocks Augie to the ground. Pills scatter everywhere, mortifying Augie, as she had been in the act of stealing some.

Sawtooth tries to tell her that it’s alright, that he knew she was stealing, and even that he used to steal muskrats. She gets up to try to leave. Sawtooth finally admits he loves her. This makes Augie pause and come back with a laugh, asking: “how could you?” (195). She then leaves him alone.

Sawtooth stays lying on the floor, seeing no reason to get up. He falls asleep and dreams that “he is lying on his back, naked and whole, on a velvety carpet of rays” (195). He also sees Undersea Mary smiling at him.

When he wakes up, it is night. He goes outside and sees that someone fixed the Wave Assuager. He sits on the deck and almost takes a Demerol pill to deal with the pain. However, he stops himself, thinking that the girl might come back if she needs the pills enough. Slowly, all his neighbors turn off their lights until he “is left bobbing alone in the darkness” (196).