CHAPTER 31

Summary

Ishmael spends another night at his motherÂ’s house. Ishmael sits in his fatherÂ’s study and ponders his fatherÂ’s books and the man his father was. He father once told him that islanders were required to watch their steps every moment because they could not tread easily on the emotions of others when surrounded by the sea. This was excellent and poor at the same time. Excellent because people took care and poor because there was too much held in and there was regret and silent brooding. His father confessed that he loved and yet did not like the islanders at the same time. Ishmael had arrived at the same view; he was his fatherÂ’s son.

He read HatsueÂ’s goodbye letter again. She had told him that his heart was large and hoped that he could move on. But his heart had only grown smaller, and he had never moved on.

Ishmael begins to walk in the cold allowing his feet to determine the direction. First to the beach and then the cedar tree, and finally the living room of the Imadas. There he reaches into his pocket and unfolds the coast guard notes.

Notes

Ishmael is his fatherÂ’s son. His father valued truth and honesty and believed in the equality of all men. It is thinking about the type of man that his father was that finally brings Ishmael to the ImadaÂ’s home to reveal the truth.

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