Navigating Early

Jack wakes up with a headache in a large bed in a log house and a dreamlike memory of being carried out of the river. He peeks out of the room, but there is no sign of Early. Suddenly, he hears loud footsteps, then Early’s voice, as he chats with someone. Jack emerges to find Early sitting by the fireplace with a large, bald man.

Early reveals that the man, who introduced himself as Gunnar Skoglund, pulled Jack out of the river and saved his life. Gunnar is from Oslo; he came to the US to work the docks at Portland. Gunnar checks the cut on Jack’s head, determines it needs stitches, and asks Jack to fetch his glasses and a medical journal from the bookshelf.

As Jack looks through the shelf which holds an assortment of titles, he notices a volume of poetry, which he opens to find the inscription, “To Gunnar—Love, Emmaline” (164). Between its pages is a handwritten letter from Gunnar to Emmaline, wishing he could say these words to her and hear her again, but how he is instead comforting himself with books, as she has instilled in him a love of words.

Jack returns the poetry book and takes the journal to Gunnar, who stitches him up. The three eat lunch, and Gunnar asks about the boys’ quest; when Jack asserts he is just going along with Early’s quest, Gunnar chastises him, suggesting he should take “a more active role in [his] pursuits” (167). To Jack’s questions, Gunnar explains that he is an “outfitter” who sells gear for hunting, fishing, and trapping.

Early asks Gunnar to outfit them for tracking the bear, and Gunnar agrees, believing it better if they are prepared. He reflects on how the people most consumed by a hunt are usually not looking for something so much as they are running from something else; eventually, it follows them till they have no place left to run. When Gunnar turns around, Jack notices large scars on his back and has a sense that Gunnar, too, is running from something.

Gunnar takes the boys out for lessons in survival, from fly-fishing to starting a fire with a mirror, setting traps, and finally tracking a bear. In the evening, they cook some bass they caught outdoors and sit by the fire under the stars after eating. Gunnar quotes some lines of poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins, in which he calls the stars “fire-folk.” Jack reveals he can name all the stars; he learned them as a child, even though his mother was not very good with names. Gunnar suggests that it is more important to be able to take in the stars’ beauty. Gunnar and Early look at the stars and create their own constellations.

Early asks about the scars on Gunnar’s back, and he tells them his story: When working the docks at Portland, Gunnar used to fight for money, with people placing wagers on him. One man, Mr. Benedict, eventually made him his personal fighter, paying him for winning fights. One day, Gunnar catches sight of Emmaline as she walks past the docks, and he begins visiting her at the library where she works. She teaches him to read, and they begin to read together; Emmaline’s favorite is Hopkins’s poetry, especially “The Starlight Night.”

Emmaline suggests Gunnar give up fighting and put his mind to better use. Gunnar tells Mr. Benedict he wants to quit, as he wants to go to college and get married. In that night’s fight, Mr. Benedict puts a pair of brothers in the ring against Gunnar. A furious Gunnar fights so hard he accidentally kills one of the brothers. The other brother beats Gunnar as two men hold him down. The police arrive, and everyone flees, but an accidental fire breaks out, and a weakened Gunnar suffers severe burns; he barely makes it out alive.

Gunnar crawls into a truck headed north; the veterinarian who owns it takes care of him and treats his wounds, and Gunnar leaves his place once he is better. Too ashamed to return to Portland and face Emmaline, Gunnar settles down in the woods of Maine. Early insists that Emmaline will understand that Gunnar didn’t mean to kill the man, and Jack suggests Gunnar write her a letter, but a startled Gunnar shoots down this suggestion, fearing rejection. The three of them head back to Gunnar’s cabin, but from a distance, they catch sight of MacScott and his men and dogs waiting for them outside.

While the boys hide and wait, Gunnar approaches MacScott and his men. MacScott asks about the boys, but Gunnar denies having seen them as he nonchalantly washes and shaves his face and then pets the dogs. MacScott asks his men to look inside the cabin anyway, and when they don’t find anything, MacScott warns that he will check back again. The boys emerge once the men leave, and Gunnar reassures them the dogs won’t be able to smell them for a while as he rubbed the menthol from his shaving cream over their noses.

The three of them go to bed, but the boys set out again in the middle of the night, not wanting to bring Gunnar more trouble. Just a short distance away, Jack once again crunches walnut shells underfoot. Early thinks the men are following them because they must be getting close to the bear, but Jack thinks the story of buried treasure enthralled them. When the boys stop for a break, they find their backpacks replenished with food supplies. Jack also finds the poetry book and a letter to Emmaline Bellefleur, sealed and addressed; Early believes Gunnar wants Jack to act as his proxy and mail it. They continue walking, using the Great Bear in the sky as a guide. Just as Jack is contemplating suggesting they turn back and go home, Early thanks him for coming along; unsure of how to answer, Jack simply says, “You’re welcome.”

After hours of walking, the boys cross a covered bridge over the river. Early thinks they should head left, but Jack is tempted to go right by the abundance of berries in that direction. Early reluctantly follows, insisting they are going the wrong way. The longer they walk, the narrower the parts grow until the boys are forced to turn around. Early, too, seems lost now, and suggests this is the part of the story when the numbers start going around in circles: Pi gets lost in a maze and ends up at the place of the “Ancient One.”

Pi wanders in a maze for days, going around in circles, until he finally lies down, exhausted. He is woken by the sound of a bell and runs by a woman who appears to be the oldest person in the world. She takes Pi home, feeding, clothing, and comforting him. She tells him stories so vivid that Pi is convinced her memories are his. She calls him “Filius,” and Pi believes it is a forgotten nickname.

Pi forgets about leaving until one night when he is drawing water from the well, he sees a bear in the dark and remembers his mother; he realizes he has been lulled into someone else’s life. When he returns to the house, the Ancient One is sleeping. He tucks an extra shawl around her shoulders, kisses her cheek, and leaves. The maze tries to divert him again, but Pi keeps his eye on the Great Bear and finds his way out, emerging in front of the ocean. However, he feels lost and directionless again and sets off uncaring about where he is headed.

As the boys keep walking, it begins to rain, and darkness descends. Jack’s thoughts wander, and he imagines his mother’s voice calling him in for supper. Suddenly, Early asks if Jack can hear a woman’s voice, and the boys emerge into a clearing where an old woman, beating a triangle, is calling out, “Martin […] Time for supper” (202). Early observes that she looks “ancient.” The woman spots Jack and appears to recognize him, asking him to come in out of the rain.

The old woman addresses Jack as “Martin” and asks if Early is Archibald, who had come by earlier to show off his new gun. She introduces herself as Eustasia Johannsen. Early tells her they are on a quest, and Eustasia says Martin was on one, too, trying out his new gun. She steers the boys toward a bedroom to get changed for dinner.

The room has a boy’s clothes laid out on a neatly made bed, and the table holds old textbooks and some half-completed eighth-grade math homework. Jack looks through a catalog that has a circled picture of a rifle priced at $17.50, with an extra 50 cents for engraving; the catalog is dated 1894. Jack deduces this must be Martin’s new gun and calculates he must be 64 years old now if he is still alive; he realizes Eustasia has mistaken him for her son, Martin.

When they go down to dinner, Early asks about the bear. Eustasia hasn’t seen it but remarks that Martin is good at tracking; he goes out at all times, and the neighbors keep trying to tell her something has happened to him because he has been gone so long. However, she knew he’d come back and needed to have supper ready when he did, just as she has done now.

Eustasia asks the boys to finish dinner and begin digging; she has been waiting for Martin to return, and now she can finally let go and die. To Jack’s shock, Early treats this revelation as par for the course and agrees. Eustasia instructs the boys on where the shovels are and where to dig; she wants to be laid to rest near her husband, a Civil War hero. After eating, Jack and Early find the shovels and grave marker, with Eustasia’s name and birthday already engraved; she is 100 years old.

Halfway through digging, Jack points out the absurdity of what they are doing, but Early reckons Eustasia’s body is done living; she has only been hanging on for Martin’s return. If she realizes Jack is not Martin, she will have to keep waiting. Jack persists in clarifying that he is not her son, and Eustasia, who has stepped outside, overhears this. Her demeanor changes, and she quiets the boys, saying she must fix supper for Martin when he returns, and she walks back into the house. Early and Jack follow her in and collect their belongings; before leaving, Early wraps an extra shawl around Eustasia’s shoulders.

Jack senses that Early is upset with him; however, Early clarifies that he is thinking about how he was wrong about the Ancient One in the story: She wasn’t luring Pi away; she was just sad that she had lost her son, like Eustasia. Now Eustasia has to return to waiting for him, as she cannot let go. Jack points out that Early, too, cannot let go of his brother, who is not coming back. Early charges at Jack and begins punching him, telling him to take it back.

Early abruptly stops hitting Jack, spotting a giant paw print that clearly belongs to the big bear. Early begins to track the prints; even when they run out, Early is not discouraged, excited that they are headed in the right direction. Jack asks Early what Fisher was like, and Early describes his brother, explaining why he thinks Fisher is alive. Jack attempts to pacify Early saying that if Pi made it out of the maze, so will Fisher, but Early reveals he found more numbers, and the story is getting jumbled—the ones are missing, and so is Pi, as he has found the catacombs.

Pi stumbles across the catacombs and realizes this is where people come to bury their secrets and treasures. He hears the voices of those unable to let go of their burdens and wanders the place himself only half-alive. Eventually, he loses his balance, steps into a dark abyss, and is gone.