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"I could hear the small waves lap lapping around the ship. They made an unexpected sound as if a vessel filled with liquid had been placed on its side and was now emptying out."

This quote comes at the very end of the final "A Walk to the Jetty" chapter and it is the final statement of the novel. Annie is on the boat that will take her to Barbados, from where she will then head to England. After waving goodbye to her mother, she is lying on her bed in her cabin listening to the water move. The way that she describes the water evokes her final separation from her mother specifically because its terminology parallels that of giving birth. Like the uterus, the waves sounds like a "vessel filled with liquid"; furthermore, it sounds like the vessel is "emptying out" as the ship moves away. The watery sounds of the ship are taking Annie John away from her mother just as the act of birth once did. The salty water again plays an important symbolic role. In this second rebirth, Annie John emerges as an independent separate self who will now fully make her own way in the world.

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