This story is like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. How will you ever be able to get all of the pieces together, especially when the mean character is trying to do the exact same thing.

The ‘boy’ wakes up on an island beach not knowing or remembering anything. Amnesia? He has an inner bully of a subconscious always ready to let him know how dumb and cowardly he is in his choices of action. Let’s put some more pieces of the puzzle together. Let’s try a different color scheme. Let’s go from the gray of the beach to the green of the forest. The bully thinks this is a bad choice. There are monsters in the forest. The boy escapes the monster by climbing a tree. There he saves a baby owl in a torrential rain storm, only to find a tree house. The colors of the puzzle pieces now change from the brown of the tree house to a strong beam of light. The boy decides to find the source of the light. The colors change yet again as the boy leaves the forest and comes to a lighthouse. “He stepped back, starring out of the window at the trees of the Green Wall [forest] lined up outside the lighthouse. What kind of place made refrigerators appear out of thin air? Showed his brother in a puddle? Made a pathway from an owl of leaves? And lured him with a light that had no bulb?” (115) Will these puzzle pieces ever come together to make a whole picture?

The boy tries to make a boat, but it floats away without him. Then three boys come to the island in two real boats. The boy wants to leave the island with them, but they cannot see him. Is he a ghost? More pieces to the puzzle. Is he dead? Finally, someone is here to help him get off of this island. The puzzle is coming together at last. The boy must choose between the easy way of slipping into the afterlife or the hard way of fighting his way back into consciousness to the life and family he is sure is waiting for his return. The bully does not think the boy could or should face the blues of the sea to get to the other distant island where his family waits for him. The boy conquers his fears and “made his own courage.”(240) The boy – Ethan- wakes up in the hospital room to the joy of his father, younger brother, and mother. The boy- Ethan- has faced his demons and survived.