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Part 1

Friday, August 18–Monday, August 28

Summary: Friday, August 18

Paul and his mother drive from Texas to Florida to meet his father and brother Erik, who are already there, setting up their new home. Mrs. Fisher, a highly organized woman, has the whole trip planned down to the minute, and hopes to get there in thirteen hours. As they make their way across the Florida line, Paul notices how much the landscape differs from Texas. The land is lush, green, and full of crops. He was hoping for more beach. Paul and Mrs. Fisher come upon a huge field of burning trees, which his mother explains are citrus trees that are being burned to clear land for homes. Paul is aghast. He finds the practice wasteful and wonders why the trees aren’t harvested for wood. The landscape changes abruptly as they make their way into their new development community, Lake Windsor Downs. The grounds are highly manicured, and the houses are all new.

Later, the family sits down to share a pizza for dinner. When conversation drifts to Erik’s new football career, Paul gets aggravated and asks to go upstairs to unpack. He opens his journal and writes for a while. Later, he hears his brother Erik run down the stairs and out the door to meet friends. Paul lies awake and wonders about the zombie, who he imagines coming down the highway from Texas on the way to meet them in Florida.

Summary: Saturday, August 19

Late that night Paul wakes up to the sound of lightning. The windows shake, and the noise of the claps of thunder are sharp and dramatic. Paul notices the air smells odd; it’s heavy and thick. He suspects something is on fire. He alerts his mother, who nervously calls the fire station. Twenty minutes later, a teenager named Wayne arrives wearing cutoff jeans and a T-shirt that says “Tangerine Volunteer Fire Department.” Mrs. Fisher, extremely annoyed, asks Wayne to find the source of the fire immediately. Wayne realizes quickly that the smoke and smell are not coming from a fire in the Fishers’ home but from a muck fire down the street. He explains calmly that the ground is full of lignite, a substance like coal, which is always smoldering. When lightning strikes, it will sometimes stir up a muck fire. Wayne says he often has to explain this to new homeowners in the area. Mrs. Fisher tells him she’s going to alert the Homeowners’ Association and let them know of the issue. Wayne says they already know and cheerily returns to his truck.

Summary: Saturday, August 19, later

The lightning storms continue during the day, even knocking power out for a brief period. After supper, Paul takes his bike out to explore his new development complex. He notices a lake in the middle of the complex and how the wind is “dusty” with construction dust, just like back home in Texas. The sections of homes in the development complex are named after the British royal family: the Lancasters, the Yorks, the Stuarts, and the Tudors. Paul reflects on how his mother probably loves this. When he returns, he sees his mother talking to Mr. Costello, the president of the Homeowners’ Association and a lawyer, whom she’s called over to complain about the muck fires. Later, Mr. Costello returns with his son Mike, who is a backup quarterback for the football team at Lake Windsor High School, where Erik will attend. Mr. Fisher explains that Mike will likely be holding the ball for Erik, whom he proudly claims will be the team’s new star placekicker. Mike greets Erik respectfully and says that he’s looking forward to working with him. Erik responds rudely, arrogantly asserting how when he’s out on the field, “it’ll be for real.” Paul, overhearing the conversation, reflects on how his father and Erik have way more invested in football than Mike and his father. Mr. Fisher expressed regrets at not playing football at Ohio State, while Mike’s father has no regrets with his law degree from FSU. Paul realizes Mike will just be part of the “Erik Fisher Football Dream” in his father’s and Erik’s eyes.

Summary: Monday, August 21

Paul begins to think about his family’s role in Tangerine. He wonders if his father, who has come to be the new deputy director of Civil Engineering in Tangerine County, will change the way things are done there. He thinks of his mother, who will likely impose some new rules in the Homeowners’ Association, and Erik, who will change the football team at Lake Windsor High. Paul wonders how he will make a difference. Paul overhears his father encouraging his mother to file a complaint with the fire department over Wayne’s lax behavior over the muck fires. Paul thinks to himself how silly this action would be, since Wayne only told them the truth, which is something they should have known about. 

Mrs. Fisher takes Paul to his new school to look around. As they tour the new campus, Mrs. Fisher is appalled. The school is a series of shacks called “portables” that are connected by a series of wooden boardwalks. The auditorium doubles as a cafeteria. Mrs. Fisher expresses her concerns over the safety of the buildings, and the principal reassures her that all the portables are connected by a phone system, are grounded by lightning rods, and have their own fire alarms. Paul, whom his mother has explained is legally blind, tells the principal that he is interested in the soccer team. When the principal asks if Paul’s a fan, Paul feels insulted and replies that he’s a player and plays goalie. As Paul and his mother pull away, they notice the fields are flooded by the rain that has just come down. Paul wonders what other things his dad overlooked moving them to this new town.

Summary: Wednesday, August 23

Two days later, Paul is back at the school campus, watching Coach Warner’s tryouts for the football team. Erik and Mr. Fisher are there showing off Erik’s impressive kicks for everyone to see. Paul notices a huge bird of prey circling overhead and identifies it as an osprey. Coach Warner explains the dynamics of the current team to Mr. Fisher. He says that his star quarterback is Antoine Thomas, but he’d like to give him a break this year. He’d like a kicker to score some extra points to lighten Antoine’s load. Mr. Fisher brags how Erik scored fourteen points in one game and says the team’s days of worrying about points are over. Paul remembers how Erik originally played soccer like him but switched to football at age eleven when he realized that football was the star attraction sport. Erik spent his days perfecting his two-step kick with his dad after school. Mr. Fisher became obsessed with making sure Erik was the best football player he could be.

Mrs. Fisher notices it’s about to rain and tells everyone to get back to the car. Paul tells her to lighten up and that they have to adjust to the new climate. He adds that the people who used to grow tangerines on these lands were probably happy with the daily rainstorms, but now that they’re no longer here and the trees are gone, the clouds are “angry.” Paul meets a new friend, Mike’s brother Joey, on the soccer field. Paul is encouraged when Joey says he’s the current goalie, adding that it doesn’t matter much to him what position he plays. Paul sets his sights on becoming the new team goalie.

Summary: Monday, August 28

It’s Paul’s first day of school. As he waits at the bus stop, Paul has a flashback to when he was waiting for the bus back in Houston as a kindergartner. He remembers standing in line for the bus and seeing his brother Erik, who was in fifth grade at the time, standing with friends in another line. One of the friends yelled over to Paul, calling him “Eclipse Boy.” Paul reflects on how the story has always been that his eyesight was damaged when he looked at an eclipse for too long. He finds it strange that, even though there was an eclipse that summer, he doesn’t recall looking at it. Paul also knows that he never wore glasses before that summer. Later, at school, Paul is assigned an aide who will accompany him throughout the day, Kerri Gardner. He tells Kerri he doesn’t need her, that he can see just fine. She asks him how he lost his eyesight, and he surprises himself when he says, “I don’t know.” Before, Paul always answered that the eclipse blinded him, but now he’s not sure. Paul sees Joey, and they discuss Joey’s brother, Mike. Joey says that Mike is getting a “bad break” because he’s really a lineman, not a quarterback, and shouldn’t be playing second quarterback to Antoine.

Analysis: Friday, August 18–Monday, August 28

From the beginning of the story, it’s apparent that the Fisher family is out to prove themselves. Mrs. Fisher, a highly organized and conscientious woman and the matriarch of the family, runs the household like a machine. She is the child of a military family, which influences her tight regimen. Mrs. Fisher oversees the moving and unpacking and takes charge of the issue of the muck fires plaguing the new development. Mr. Fisher’s goal is more narrowly focused: he is out to prove Erik is the next football star at Lake Windsor High and is obsessed with making sure all his attention is on Erik’s smooth transition into and steady rise on the team. Paul is equally motivated, but by deeper forces. He’s out to prove to himself that he isn’t a coward. His whole life he has feared his brother Erik, who, as the novel unfolds, proves to be a problematic and dangerous character. Paul is plagued by his lack of memory of the origin of his blindness, a crucial event in his life. He has his first flashback at the beginning of the novel, which leaves him with a nagging sense that he must remember something about that day.

Paul’s awareness of what is going on around him reveals that he is much more perceptive and insightful than the rest of his family. He asks questions about the surrounding agricultural fields and wants to know more about the land they’re on. The other Fishers, including his father, are unconcerned. In fact, Mr. Fisher’s oversight about the muck fire situation has put their family in a precarious position since they essentially live on burning land and have limited insurance as a result. Paul is the one who catches sight of the osprey circling over them at the football field and sees how pathetic his father looks compared to Mike Costello’s dad, who has no regrets about his choices in life. Paul pays attention to the ground beneath him, both figuratively and literally. Paul has goals of becoming a soccer player and establishing himself in the community, but he also has a goal of discovering himself. His journal entries, which make up the structure of the novel, are the apparatus by which he sets on his path to discovery.

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