The Line Tender

Twelve-year-old Fred is Lucy Everhart’s neighbor, best friend, and love interest. Fred lives with his mother, Maggie, and his two older sisters. Fred has asthma and frequently uses his inhaler. He’s also a musician and enjoys jazz music, particularly Miles Davis. Fred loves science, and it was his idea to create the field guide, a science project he and Lucy work on through the summer. He also encourages Lucy to dive deeper into her mother’s research, and he pushes Sookie to reach out to the biologists when he catches a shark. In both cases, Fred represents the necessity of overcoming grief. Lucy notes that Fred tends to be more uptight around other people, but when he is alone or with her, he is more relaxed. Toward the end of the novel, Lucy learns that Fred planned to give her the mermaid pendant and ask her to be his girlfriend, which gives her clarity on the nature of their relationship. Fred’s death is the catalyst for Lucy and her father talking to one another about their grief, Mr. Patterson scattering his wife’s ashes, and Lucy pursuing her mother’s research with Dr. Robin Walker.

Tom, Lucy’s father, is a scuba diver, detective, and photographer. At the start of the novel, Tom is withdrawn and chooses to go scuba diving rather than talk about his grief regarding his wife’s death. He is distracted and overwhelmed, sometimes forgetting to go grocery shopping or cook for himself and Lucy. Tom’s friendship with Sookie has deteriorated in the years since Helen’s death; Sookie claims it’s because “[Helen] was better at reaching out to people than [Tom]” (170). As a member of the town’s scuba rescue team, Tom is the diver who finds Fred’s body in the quarry; he injures his leg retrieving Fred. Tom’s injury keeps him home with Lucy in the weeks after Fred’s death, and Sookie and Mr. Patterson start reaching out to Tom again. Tom accepts their help and opens up about his struggles since his wife’s death. At the end of the novel, Tom has moved through his grief to the point where he can join the shark research team with Lucy, in honor of his late wife.

Helen was a shark biologist and Lucy’s mother; she died of an aneurysm five years before the start of the novel. Helen had freckles, like Lucy, and shared her reddish-brown hair as well. She was curious, confident, and fearless. Lucy describes her as “brave enough to swim with sharks, teach sharkology to college kids, and track shark movement and behavior to fill books and classrooms with new information” (256). Helen was outgoing, inviting people over to their house and acting as the glue between Tom and Sookie from high school to adulthood. Lucy interacts with her mother through her research proposals, articles, cookbook notes, and other written materials. As Tom and Sookie reconnect, Lucy learns more about her mother through stories that her father and Sookie tell. Helen’s advice, relayed through Sookie, is “Don’t resist pain” (261). This encourages Tom and Lucy to process their grief.

Sookie is “a fourth-generation Rockport fisherman” (11). Since he spends so much time out at sea, he is tanned and his hair is sun-bleached. Sookie, Helen, and Tom went to high school in Rockport together and had been close friends until Helen’s death. According to Tom, Sookie is “a stubborn guy, he only hears what he wants to hear” (19). Sookie catches the shark that Lucy and Fred see on the wharf at the start of the novel, and he becomes more involved with Lucy and Tom after Fred’s death. Sookie drives them to see Vern Divine, and he eventually agrees to rejoin the shark research team led by Dr. Robin Walker. At the end of the novel, Sookie and Tom have reconnected, and Sookie is like an uncle in Lucy’s life.

Mr. Patterson is Lucy and Tom’s elderly neighbor. Mr. Patterson spends most days in his rocking chair on his porch listening to sports radio and the police scanner. His wife, Mrs. Patterson, passed away about 20 years before the start of the novel, and he never remarried. Mr. Patterson was the person who broke the news to Lucy when her mother died since Lucy was staying with him while her father was at the hospital. At her mother’s funeral, he sat with Lucy and Tom “like he was [Helen’s] father” (117), which highlights how close he is to the Everharts. Lucy’s father explains to her that “[the] Pattersons didn’t have kids of their own […] so [Helen] was theirs too” (117). When Sookie offers to drive Lucy and her father to see Vern Divine, Mr. Patterson offers his car for the trip, and Lucy invites him to come with them. On that trip, Mr. Patterson scatters Mrs. Patterson’s ashes off the coast of an island they used to visit when they were younger. Mr. Patterson represents how grief may take years to overcome and how each person’s grieving process is different. He also acts as Fred’s mentor as Fred comes to understand his feelings for Lucy. Mr. Patterson lets Fred pick a piece of Mrs. Patterson’s jewelry to give to Lucy as a gift, and Mr. Patterson explains the significance of the jewelry to Lucy later in the novel. Mr. Patterson is both a mentor figure and the embodiment of how a community is healthiest when it includes a mix of generations working together.

Vern is Helen Everhart’s old mentor; he has a short-term memory issue and lives with his nurse, Marion, in Maine. When Lucy first meets Vern, she describes him as “a small man with a round face and giant glasses[,] […] more frail than [she] had imagined” (226). Despite Vern’s memory issues, he remembers Helen and shares photographs of her with Lucy. Vern is sometimes confused and calls Lucy “Helen” and encourages her to continue her research. Yet, despite his health issues, he hasn’t lost his zest for life. In this way, he represents the strength of the human will to triumph over odds.

Fiona is Fred’s older sister and becomes Lucy’s close friend after Fred’s death. Lucy describes her as “the art-school version of Snow White with short black hair, ivory skin, and glossy rosebud lips” (57). Fiona is artistic and uses her skills to design clothes and do makeup. She has conversations with Lucy about body image issues, puberty, and romance, helping her as she navigates the challenges of Adolescence and First Love. Fiona gives Lucy Fred’s backpack after his death, which is where Lucy finds her mother’s research proposal and the mermaid pendant. When Fiona learns that Lucy writes postcards to Fred to communicate her feelings, Fiona suggests that Lucy talk to the school guidance counselor. In this way, Fiona becomes Lucy’s mentor for moving through her grief and coming of age as a young woman.

Maggie is Fred’s mother. Her husband left their family at some point prior to the start of the novel, and she raises Fred and his two sisters on her own. After Lucy’s mother died, Maggie fed Lucy, checked in on her homework, and drove her to and from school. After Fred’s death, Maggie drinks heavily, which scares Fiona. Maggie reveals that she’s received all the postcards that Lucy sent to Fred after his death and that she’s read them. Maggie blames the teenagers who were at the quarry for Fred’s death, but Tom and Lucy encourage her to forgive them and go to therapy to help her move past her anger and grief.