The Changeling: A Novel

Arriving at Long Beach, Apollo and Patrice see William waiting for them outside the station. Patrice ridicules William for looking like a man who has lived alone for too long. Apollo retorts that at least he hasn’t joined Brian’s tribute page. On the road, William talks about his two daughters and his wife. He eventually takes them to a yacht club where they can talk aboard a boat called Child’s Play.

Apollo is a little disappointed by the small size of the boat. William admits that he rented the boat off an app he developed. Patrice and William bond over their interest in computers.

William says he is buying the book as a reconciliation gift for his estranged wife, Gretta. Her father read it to her when she was little, hoping to give her a model to aspire after. William then confesses that he is disillusioned with classical approaches to fatherhood and wants to become a New Dad to form a stronger connection with his family. Patrice encourages him to express this to his wife and daughters. William cries after they complete the deal.

With the money he has just made, Apollo meets with Kim at a Buddhist temple. He gives Kim a check to pay her back for her midwife services. Apollo then bids Kim goodbye, and he also mentions that he never found out what Emma’s third wish was. He soon receives a text from a number he doesn’t know, offering to help him find Emma.

Apollo’s mystery contact sends him a map, which leads him to a public fountain.

Apollo’s contact turns out to be William. He tells Apollo that after meeting him, he felt determined to help him locate Emma. He has just learned Emma’s whereabouts—she is on an island somewhere along the East River. Apollo is surprised, saying that even the FBI and the police couldn’t locate her. William says that he has friends who are good with computers and that they succeeded in tracking Emma down. He offers to rent Apollo a boat to get to Emma.

Apollo visits Patrice and Dana. Dana notices that Apollo has tied Emma’s string around his middle finger, and he admits that he tried to make a wish—however, he refuses to disclose it.

Apollo wants to use Patrice’s computer to play a video William had given him of Emma. Patrice trusts William only because he had done a background check on him. After Apollo affirms his intention to find Emma, Patrice plays the video, which is a CCTV recording.

The video shows Emma walking through New York. She eventually reaches the pier and waits for Kim. They board a water taxi and leave New York. After seeing the video, Apollo texts William, asking him for the boat he offered to rent to Apollo.

The novel recalls the moment when Brian West returned to Apollo and Lillian’s apartment as a faceless man. Brian West called for Lillian, and when he was sure she wasn’t home, he turned the shower on. Then, he sat down with Apollo to watch television. After some time, the steam from the hot shower filled the apartment. Brian picked Apollo up and said, “You’re coming with me” (216); then, he carried the boy into the mist.

Apollo visits the baby Brian tribute page on Facebook. He becomes angry when he sees the upsetting posts made by a user named Kinder Garten. Later, Apollo meets with William at a yacht club in the Bronx. An error on William’s app has caused problems with the boat’s rental, forcing him to steal Child’s Play. William has nevertheless learned how to operate the boat for Apollo. After casting off, Apollo throws his wedding ring into the river.

William alerts Apollo to the fact that someone on the baby Brian tribute page knows that he is on the boat. Apollo wonders when William might have discovered the page but reveals that he has only told Patrice about his plan. Apollo deduces that Patrice may be the moderator of the page, who is a user named Green Hair Harry. William and Apollo pass a few islands before settling on one teeming with plant life.

They arrive at North Brother Island, which is a former hospital and rehabilitation point that was eventually abandoned by the city. Apollo asks William why he really came, thinking that William might be trying to take another video of their experiences for YouTube. William reveals that Gretta rejected his reconciliation gift, so he doesn’t feel like being alone. Suddenly, Apollo notices firelight in one of the supposedly abandoned buildings on the island, and he runs off to investigate.

Apollo discovers that women and children inhabited the island, and he thinks it seems like “an island out of a fairy tale” (228). He watches the island’s inhabitants with a mixture of awe and terror, and to calm himself down, he recites his mantra: “I am the god Apollo” (229). Apollo declares that he will have his revenge. He rushes out into the hospital courtyard, where four women beat him with makeshift clubs.

Afterward, the women load Apollo onto a stretcher and carry him away. They mock his utterances about coming to seek revenge against his wife, and they take him to the water to submerge him. Apollo struggles to free himself and gets to the shore. When he explains what Emma had done to Brian, they recognize her name. They take his wallet but can’t find his phone. Then, they take him back to the hospital ruins to meet Cal.

The women lead him to the island school. Apollo meets another woman who retrieved Apollo’s cellphone while he was being beaten. The woman shows Apollo two sock puppets and asks him which one is scarier. Apollo answers that neither one is; then, he identifies the woman as Cal or Callisto.

Cal invites Apollo to make puppets. Looking at the materials, he guesses that the puppets are from the fairy tale of “Rapunzel.” Cal asks if she can practice telling it to him.

An elderly man steals some rapunzel for his wife, only to be discovered by the enchantress who owned the rapunzel field. In exchange for his life, the enchantress demands the man’s child. When the child is born, the enchantress takes her away and names her Rapunzel.

Young Rapunzel is kept in a tower, using her long hair to carry the enchantress up through the window. She is soon discovered by a prince, who is drawn to her singing. He visits Rapunzel after the enchantress leaves, and they soon fall in love. However, Rapunzel accidentally tells the enchantress about the prince. The angry enchantress cuts Rapunzel’s hair and exiles her to the desert. She similarly tricks the prince, dropping him into a pit of thorns where he is blinded. He wanders into the desert, hearing Rapunzel’s song, and when they are reunited along with the two children Rapunzel had given birth to in the desert, her tears heal his eyesight.

Apollo finds the fairy tale too disturbing to be a children’s story. Cal agrees, explaining that fairy tales were originally meant for adults. Later, in the 1700s, after the emergence of the merchant class, new rules of behavior separated the rich from the poorer classes. At this time, the role of the fairy tale changed: To teach upper class children how to behave, fairy tales were imbued with morals. Cal says that a “bad fairy tale has a simple goddamn moral. A great fairy tale tells the truth” (244).

Cal refuses to tell Apollo anything about Emma. She instead explains that in “Rapunzel,” the elderly couple, the enchantress, and the prince all failed to ensure the girl’s safety. The story of Rapunzel is thus all about the question of how one can protect their children. In Germany, where the story originated, peasants told the story to ponder this question in an interesting way, which explains why it remains relevant in the present. Cal shows Apollo her enchantress puppet and talks about a form of magic called “glamour,” which can make anything—including babies—appear different from what they really are.

Suddenly, a guard announces that William has been caught. Cal is angry that Apollo didn’t mention he had a companion, so she orders him and William to be locked in seclusion rooms.

The guards say they caught William along the shore; he was waving his phone at them. When they surrender his phone to Cal, she realizes he is Gretta’s husband. Cal hits William with his phone, and he falls to the ground. Then, the guards destroy the phone with clubs. Cal suggests calling Gretta over to watch him die.

In the seclusion cells, Apollo confronts William about what occurred. William admits he has been searching for the island for months, but he says he could not find it until he came with Apollo. He admits to the various lies he has told, including not knowing how to sail a boat and not knowing who Apollo was during their first encounter. He says he read about Brian’s birth in the newspaper around the same time that Gretta had left him. He then started reading obsessively about Apollo and Emma during Gretta’s absence, and he was inspired to become a New Dad by Apollo. William clarifies that only one of his daughters is still alive.

William says he has called for backup, but he doesn’t clarify who will come to help. He finally reveals that he will do everything he can to help Apollo find Emma, provided he helps William to reconcile with Gretta and their daughter, Grace. If Apollo refuses, then nothing will stop William’s backup from killing everyone on the island.

Cal returns to the seclusion cells, where William identifies her by her real name, Pearl Walker. He describes her background, saying that she used to have an alcohol addiction and that she is a mother. Cal accuses William of killing his other daughter, but William denies it. Cal then announces that Gretta will come to kill William herself.

Cal offers Apollo another chance to maintain her trust, citing Apollo’s resourcefulness in finding the island. Apollo and Cal leave the cells together. The novel mentions that this will be the last time Apollo ever sees William.

Cal gives Apollo a copy of Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak, describing it as the key to understanding where he is: a magical place outside the laws of the natural world.

Cal then reveals that Emma has been a resident of the island for three months, frequently going back and forth to New York to retrieve new books. Apollo scans through the pages of the Sendak book, reading the sections of the story in which the goblins kidnap Ida’s sister and replace her with an ice dummy. Cal tells Apollo that he and Emma are in the midst of a dark fairy tale. She admits to being a witch but cautions that William is far worse because of the monsters he deals with.

Cal says that all the women on the island have killed a child, like Emma; they have brought their surviving children with them to the island. For the most part, these children are ignorant of their histories. The women choose to remain on the island because Cal and the other women affirm their experiences as credible.

Apollo asks to see the children. Cal takes him to the courtyard to watch them play. They approach one girl who is struggling to ride a scooter on her own. Cal offers to help, but the girl refuses. Apollo offers as well and she allows him to help. Cal introduces the little girl as Gayl. She falls but returns to Apollo and holds his hand, trusting him. Apollo asks to meet Gretta, but Cal is reluctant. She says that if Gretta wants to talk to him, she will approach him during the puppet show that night.