Red Kayak

Brady reaches the dock and readies his skiff, reluctantly allowing Tilly to jump into the boat after him. Following his father's advice, he sets off to explore some of the creeks that branch off from the main river.

Brady's skiff quickly falls behind his father's faster workboat, the Miss Amanda. Seeing the boat—named in honor of the Parks' younger child—plunges Brady back into the past. His sister Amanda died suddenly in infancy, and the shock and sorrow of the event nearly tore the family apart; Brady's mother spent half a year living with her family in Connecticut, and his father—frequently called to work weekends—ended up placing Brady in Carl's care for days at a time.

For Brady, though, the experience of staying with his cousin had unexpected benefits. Carl was training at an Annapolis firehouse at the time, and the firefighters and paramedics there largely treated Brady like one of their own: "They gave me my own locker, and just like them, I taped up snapshots of my family inside the metal door" (24). Sometimes, Carl and his coworkers even allowed Brady to ride along in the ambulance.

Brady continues to search the tributaries but is quickly growing frustrated; he doesn't see how the kayak could have drifted out of the main current, and the weather has him worried about