The City and Its Uncertain Walls

The next day, the protagonist sees Yellow Submarine Boy in the same place, watching him like he did the day before. That night, after closing the library, the protagonist walks the girl from the library home, but cannot sleep through the night, woken by the pain in his ear and thoughts of the Yellow Submarine Boy.

When the protagonist walks to the library the next night, Yellow Submarine Boy is not beside the river, unsettling the protagonist even more. He begins to suspect some kind of connection between the boy and his ear. The ear is more swollen and painful, and the dreams reject the protagonist that night. After closing the library, the girl refuses to be walked home for the first time since the protagonist arrived, saying she needs to think. The protagonist suffers insomnia again that night and decides he must heal his ear and get Yellow Submarine Boy out of his mind.

The protagonist wakes up in the middle of the night to find Yellow Submarine Boy standing in his room, looking over him. The protagonist cannot move and cannot speak, but the boy can read his mind. Yellow Submarine Boy explains that he made it into the town by passing through the wall, bypassing the Gatekeeper. He left his shadow deep in the woods and is here to ask the protagonist to join with him and become one, so the boy can become a Dream Reader.

Yellow Submarine Boy shares that he was born to be a Dream Reader but could not be one in the other world. He says that he and the protagonist were once one, and if they join together, they will be restored to their original forms. This way, Yellow Submarine Boy can read dreams while the protagonist goes about his life, seeing the girl. Yellow Submarine Boy tells the protagonist that he must bite the protagonist’s other ear lobe to join together. He already bit the protagonist’s earlobe in the real world, which brought him to the town. The protagonist agrees to join as one, and Yellow Submarine Boy bites his earlobe. The protagonist falls into a deep sleep.

When the protagonist wakes up in the morning, he checks his earlobes and finds them unmarked, with no pain. It is as if Yellow Submarine Boy never bit them, though the protagonist knows he did, their interactions too real to be a dream. He searches for any changes within himself, having joined as one with the boy. Upon reflection, the protagonist realizes that if they become one person together, there is no separate part of him that is Yellow Submarine Boy.

At the library that night, the girl is astounded that the protagonist’s ears have healed. When he goes to read old dreams, the protagonist cannot hear their words, and he realizes that Yellow Submarine Boy is reading them. The protagonist wakes the dreams up, and Yellow Submarine Boy reads them. They read five dreams that night, more than ever before. On their walk home, the girl is excited about this new progress. After dropping her off, the protagonist reaches deep within himself to ask if Yellow Submarine Boy is there, but gets no answer.

Yellow Submarine Boy meets the protagonist in his sleep, in a small room with nothing but a short candle on a table. Yellow Submarine Boy explains that this place is the protagonist’s consciousness, and the only place they can be separate and speak with each other, until the candle goes out. The protagonist asks if the boy read the dreams. Yellow Submarine Boy explains that he can understand the dreams in a way the protagonist cannot, and that he came to this world to do so, reading being his life mission. He also shares that while he can read them, he cannot wake them up. The protagonist can, and combined, they make the perfect team. The protagonist asks how long this partnership will last, and Yellow Submarine Boy dismisses the question as irrelevant, since time does not move in the walled-in town. Time repeats, and does not accumulate, meaning their partnership will always exist in the present.

Spring arrives, and the protagonist and Yellow Submarine Boy continue as one. Now they can read up to seven dreams a night, and the girl is thoroughly impressed. One night, in the room of the protagonist’s consciousness, Yellow Submarine Boy brings up a quote from an old book he once read: “Anyone can climb up coconut trees using their legs, but no one’s ever climbed up higher than a coconut tree” (433). He believes that himself and the protagonist are climbing higher than a coconut tree, into the nothingness above it. He argues that because time has no meaning in the town, they can do so. He worries that if they leave, or if time gains meaning, they will fall and die. He explains to the protagonist, though, that the fall will not be fatal if they believe someone will catch them. Yellow Submarine Boy has no one to catch him, and though the protagonist tries to imagine who would save him, no face appears.

After their conversation about the coconut tree, the protagonist begins to feel strange, as though his heart and will are moving in different directions. He and Yellow Submarine Boy talk in his consciousness often, though less frequently as they grow more united. When the protagonist brings up how he feels pulled in different directions, Yellow Submarine Boy tells him that his time to leave the town is coming. He explains that the protagonist’s heart wants to reunite with his shadow that left the town long ago. Yellow Submarine Boy reveals that he knows the protagonist’s shadow and believes it does a great job of standing in.

The protagonist is concerned that he and his shadow and have switched roles. Yellow Submarine Boy assures him that it does not matter if he and his shadow switch places, instead emphasizing that they will fit together. He encourages the protagonist to follow his heart. Yellow Submarine Boy will take over as Dream Reader, assuring the protagonist that the town will change to accommodate him, needing him and his abilities. The dreams warm up to him, and he believes he can open them now.

Finally, Yellow Submarine Boy explains that once the protagonist wants to leave, all he must do is wish it with his heart, blow out the candle on the table between them, and believe that his shadow will catch him in the real world. He tells the protagonist that his heart is like a bird and the wall cannot stop him if his heart flies over it. The protagonist asks for some time to think, and Yellow Submarine Boy reminds him he has all the time he needs in the town with no time.

Every night, when the protagonist walks the girl from the library home, he says “See you tomorrow” (442). On the last night he walks her home, he says “Farewell” (442). The girl does not expect this and looks at him in an odd way. He believes she looks different, but believes this transformation reflects his own changes. She says farewell, and as he walks away, the protagonist wonders if she will also disappear when he leaves the town, as though she were in the library to reflect his reality.

The protagonist and Yellow Submarine Boy meet for the final time. Yellow Submarine Boy says goodbye to the protagonist and reminds him to believe that his shadow will catch him. He says that the protagonist believing in his shadow is the same as believing in himself. The protagonist readies himself and blows out the candle on the table. A deep darkness surrounds him.