Unplugged

Back at the camp, Brooklynne is thinking about her conversation with Jett. She flashes back to her first year at the camp when she was six years old. Her parents were divorced, and her father had custody of her for the summer. Initially, everybody treated her like a celebrity. As she got older and the original guests departed, Brooklynne kept a low profile because she didn’t completely agree with her father’s philosophy and didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself.

Now that Jett knows her secret, she decides to come clean with Tyrell and Grace before they hear the news from someone else. That evening at a group bonfire, she finds the other two and tells them her secret. They barely have time to digest the facts before Jett comes charging out of the woods to describe what he found at Snapper’s house. Nobody believes him. Grace thinks he’s sincere but delusional. Jett says, “I wish I’d never heard of this dump! But if you won’t help me do the right thing, I’ll do it myself!” (275).

Going back to his cabin, Jett collects as much adhesive tape as he can find in the first aid kit and takes one of the boxes of fireworks hidden under his bed. Then, he drives the boat back to Hedge Apple and maneuvers upriver to Snapper’s mansion. Jett wants to draw police attention to the illegal operation. His solution is to tape the explosives to the wire fencing around the alligator enclosure. With the fence blown, the reptiles can find their way downriver to Louisiana, where they belong. Intent on his work, Jett doesn’t notice one of Snapper’s guards, who catches him off guard. The boy tries to escape but is tackled. Although Jett brought a remote detonator, he loses it in the scuffle and is then dragged into the house.

That night, Grace can’t sleep, as everything Jett said circulates through her brain. By midnight, she decides she must talk to him but grows alarmed when she finds that he isn’t in his cabin. She notices that one box of fireworks is missing and concludes that Jett intends to blow up Snapper’s mansion. Grace immediately awakens Tyrell and tells him that they must stop Jett from doing something stupid. Without the boat for transportation, their only other option is to borrow one of the Oasis golf carts to get to town. Once in Hedge Apple, they proceed directly to the mansion and arrive just in time to see the Ferrari pull up. When Ivory steps out, both campmates are shocked to realize that Jett was telling the truth.

Grace and Tyrell head down to the river to find Jett’s boat, but he isn’t in it. Instead, they find the explosives taped to the fence. As they look closer, they see hundreds of alligators in the enclosure and realize Jett’s real plan. Grace thinks to herself, “Not only was Jett right, but so far, every single thing has turned out exactly the way he described it. Then he asked for our help, and we turned him away” (299). As she backs away from the enclosure, she trips over the remote detonator. Since Jett doesn’t have it, Grace concludes that something has happened to him. She picks up the detonator and sneaks toward the house with Tyrell. Through a window, they see Jett being held by the two guards while Ivory waves a penlight in front of his face. She is hypnotizing him, just as Jett claimed she could. Grace and Tyrell want to summon help, but neither one has a phone. Grace says that they need to create a distraction.

The scene now shifts to the interior of the house from Jett’s point of view. He shuts his eyes to avoid looking at Ivory as she attempts to brainwash him. Jett reproaches Ivory for her hypocrisy. She points out that it’s easy to criticize greed if a person is born rich. Ivory says that she can’t let Jett go in his present state. The boy also realizes that brainwashing might be a better alternative than letting himself get killed. He is on the point of opening his eyes and allowing Ivory to have her way when a loud explosion shatters the windows and lights up the sky. Jett realizes that someone has detonated his fireworks.

Ivory and her guards are momentarily too stunned to move, which allows Jett to slip away. By the time he reaches the door, it swings open to reveal Tyrell and Grace with the detonator still in her hand. She says that they’ve come to rescue Jett. The three campmates take off running with the adults in pursuit. They head for the golf cart and jump in. As they try to gain speed, Ivory and her men catch up, surrounding the cart and pinning its occupants. Jett registers Ivory’s rage. Her house is a shambles, and the alligators have escaped.

The story now shifts to Brooklynne a short while earlier that evening. She awakens to find her father in an urgent conversation with Matt. He says that Jett is missing. Brooklynne knows that Jett has probably gone to the mansion to deal with the illegal alligator farm on his own. Matt and Magnus are about to drive there when a distant explosion makes the cabin walls shudder. Brooklynne assumes that Jett used his stash of fireworks to blow up the mansion. She produces a hidden cell phone and calls the police. It only takes a matter of minutes to get to Hedge Apple by car. When the trio arrives at the mansion, they see Tyrell, Grace, and Jett being dragged from a golf cart by several large men.

By this time, a police car has also arrived on the scene. It blares its siren, causing the attackers to let go of the children and flee. The cops pursue the attackers while Brooklynne, Magnus, and Matt check on the campmates. None of them have been injured. When the police march the attackers back to the squad car, Brooklynne is shocked to realize that Ivory is their leader. Everything Jett said was true.

Ivory taunts Magnus for his idealism: “You think I liked your terrible food and your dime-store philosophy? My one consolation going to prison is I no longer have to pretend that you have something to offer any living creature with an IQ greater than a pineapple!” (313). To everyone’s surprise, Jett comes to Magnus’s defense and thanks his friends for saving his life. They apologize for not believing him in the first place.

The morning after the rescue, Magnus gathers all the adults together and explains Ivory’s scheme. He returns the checks they gave her. Despite the scam, all the patrons decide to stay because they still love the Oasis, including Matt. He announces that he’s quitting Fuego to teach English to kids in developing countries. He’ll be working for Jett’s mother at Orthodontists Without Borders, saying that dealing with Jett was his proving ground. As he says, “How do you think I discovered I love working with kids? If I can handle Vladimir Baranov’s son, I’m ready to take on anything” (319). Jett admits to himself that the Oasis isn’t so bad. He won't even mind coming back next year if his friends are there too.

One day, while out in a pedal boat with Tyrell, Jett hears a scream when another camper discovers a reptile nearby. Team Lizard gathers to assess the situation. When Needles chomps on Jett’s finger, they all know it’s their missing pet. At first, Jett plans to build an aquatic shelter for the alligator, but the others convince him to contact Arkansas Game and Fish so that Needles can be relocated down South with his own kind. Jett resolves to get a pet hamster once he goes home, even if his father objects, saying, “He has no idea how having friends—human and reptile—changes everything about a guy’s priorities. And how doing the right thing can be more important than doing what makes you happy—even when it hurts” (324).