Echo Mountain

Esther insists that she stay with Cate while Ellie goes back, and Ellie feels jealous of their long-time bond. She realizes, however, that Esther’s becoming more like herself is a good thing. Ellie watches as Esther redresses Cate’s wound, ensuring she does it properly and still feeling unsure about leaving Cate and Esther alone. Cate senses that there is some unspoken issue between Ellie and Esther and asks about it; Esther admits that she blames Ellie for the accident. Cate explains that “blame comes from the Greek for ‘curse’ […] A curse. Against the sacred. Which is what sisters are. Or should be. To each other” (240). Esther tells Ellie that she forgives her for being “in the way” (240), a half-baked attempt at forgiveness that Ellie accepts for the time being. She then works up the courage to head down the mountain in the dark.

Ellie’s lantern runs out of oil as she goes down the path. She spots a black bear in the woods, and it spots her as well. The two stare at each other for a moment, and Ellie admires the bear’s connection to nature. She pauses a bit too long, leaning toward the bear in curiosity, and it lunges toward her. Ellie drops the lantern and runs, despite knowing better. She trips and falls, then curls up and lies still as the bear kicks her, pokes at her, and sniffs her. The bear eventually wanders off, and Ellie is grateful that it was she who encountered it and not Esther.

Ellie reaches home and tells her mother what happened at the cabin, as well as her plan to fetch Larkin and gather more honey for Cate. Her mother objects to the idea of Ellie going anywhere near Larkin’s mother, so Ellie picks up her mother’s mandolin and asks her mother to note the inscription inside: “Keavy.” It is a mandolin made by Larkin’s father, named after his wife, and when Ellie’s mother hears this, she experiences a moment of confusion as she pictures someone loving that woman. Ellie explains that Larkin’s mother used to be different and that “maybe she’ll wake up soon and come back to what she used to be” (245).

Ellie has a nightmare of Samuel being the one who is struck by the tree. He dies as she watches him, and when she wakes, she is in tears. She crawls into Samuel’s bed and sleeps there instead, comforted by his warmth and aliveness. Ellie wakes up and hears Samuel in the kitchen asking his mother why Ellie is in his bed. She calls out, teasing that she wants to keep it, and she and Samuel wrestle before Ellie races off to the kitchen for porridge with maple syrup. She asks if her mother will accompany her to get Larkin, and her mother says she must stay at home with Father and Samuel. Samuel offers to go with Ellie, but his mother says no. Samuel decides to take care of the dogs instead.

Ellie packs her bag, including a jar for the honey, gloves, flint, a knife, and some porridge for Cate. She says goodbye to her mother and Samuel and then to the dogs. Ellie makes her way to Cate’s cabin and finds that Esther has arranged all the books, prepared food, and done Cate’s hair and nails. She momentarily feels jealous of Esther’s feat until she realizes that Esther left the bedsheets wet and Cate’s wound is again festering. Cate believes the wound became infected when she fell, but Esther feels responsible nonetheless. Ellie immediately goes off to get honey and find Larkin, instructing Esther to clean up Cate’s leg while she is gone. Ellie wonders if Cate is “thinking of her husband, the doctor. Or her son, who had died so quickly” (258).

Ellie makes her way to Larkin’s cabin. Seeing it for the first time, she marvels at the immaculate gardens and large chimney. Larkin sees her and comes to meet her, asking why she risked coming to his cabin. His mother comes out, and Ellie tells her about her mother’s mandolin and her father’s sickness. She asks if Larkin can help her fetch honey for Cate, whose wound is infected again. Larkin’s mother states that the hive nearby is dry and the bees dead. When Ellie suggests a doctor, she learns that not only is there no way to pay one, but he would not reach Cate in time. Ellie and Larkin decide to ask the other town families if any of them have honey—one last desperate attempt before having to cut the wound off Cate’s leg.

Mrs. Anderson gives Ellie a small dollop of honey, Mr. Peterson the same, both of them looking at Larkin as if he is an alien. Mrs. Lockhart, who believes Cate is a witch who cursed her belly to sickness, is reluctant, and Ellie is forced to lie to her to try to barter for honey. She tells her that Larkin is her kin, and that she needs the honey for her father’s bedsores. Mrs. Lockhart refuses to part with any until Ellie has fish to trade. Larkin insists that they stop at the hive by Ellie’s cabin next, but Ellie hesitates, not wanting to rob those bees of any more honey. Larkin looks sunken, and Ellie concedes, saying, “As long as we spend it on Cate, we should take what honey we can” (268).

Larkin is impressed by the flint Ellie has, saying it was made by “people who lived here long before us” (270). Ellie likes when Larkin refers to the two of them as “us.” She gets her gloves and pack on, the same way as last time, and Larkin smokes the hole out before Ellie goes in to retrieve the honey. Ellie once again feels the stings of the bees, and their pain as they die, “which was much too big for such tiny animals, and their fury and their confusion” (271). Ellie cries as Larkin holds her, and when she feels better, she gets an idea to take some bees back to the cabin in the jar and use them to sting her father.

Ellie insists on going back to the cabin to help her father before returning to Cate, and her mother greets Larkin warmly, mentioning the mandolin. Samuel rushes in, announcing that Quiet opened his eyes to look at him. He beckons Ellie out to the woodshed, and Larkin joins them. When Larkin notices the puppies’ brindled fur, he suggests that Captan may be their sire (father). Ellie holds Quiet and shows Larkin the carvings hidden on the shelf. Larkin is sad to see them hidden, noting that Ellie has yet to find them all. Ellie explains that she enjoyed having something that was all her own, and the idea that someone out there understood her. Larkin is happy to hear this, and they go to see Ellie’s father together.

Ellie and Larkin reach her father’s room. Larkin sees the mandolin in the corner and picks it up “as if it were made of glass” (278). He asks Ellie’s mother if she will trade anything for it, now that she no longer wants it; Ellie’s mother insists that she does want it, puts it back, and leaves the room. Ellie introduces her father to Larkin, despite her father being asleep, and puts Quiet on him to comfort him. She tells the puppy to “teach Daddy how to open his eyes” (280), once again drawing a parallel between the dogs and her family. Ellie stares at her father, his face hollow like a drum. She takes the jar of bees, shakes it, and lays it next to her father’s head.

The bees die stinging Ellie’s father as she taps the jar to rile them. As she pulls the jar away, her father groans, his first sound since the accident. Ellie’s mother runs in, and then her father groans again, turning his head slightly. He does not stir any further, and Ellie becomes frustrated and disappointed. Ellie goes to leave for Cate’s cabin, asking Samuel to take Quiet back to his mother in the meantime. They discuss the fact that Quiet will soon be given up, and Larkin insists that “Quiet will decide whose dog he is. Just like his daddy did” (285).

Ellie and Larkin walk along, eating lunch and discussing their history together. Ellie explains her reasoning for trying to startle her father awake, and Larkin talks about how his father used to make mandolins in his grandma’s cabin. He remembers bonding with his father there, watching him work and helping when he could. Larkin found Cate in the cabin shortly after his father died, crying on the floor amongst the smell of the hide glue. After this moment of bonding and learning about one another, Larkin and Ellie reach the cabin, where Captan is waiting to usher them inside.