Skink—No Surrender

“It was like traveling with a space alien.” 

This simple line establishes the way Richard views Skink at the beginning of their journey. Skink is out of touch with the modern world, but Richard is intrigued by him. Richard’s view of Skink sets them up as foils, giving them another obstacle to overcome on their journey: their inability to fully understand one another.

“I explained that my father had loved Dylan and lots of old bands, and that the day after Dad died, I’d downloaded his whole playlist to my iPod.” 

On their trip, Richard and Skink find common ground. Without Skink, Richard cannot complete his hero’s journey. To work together, they must better understand one another. Richard’s knowledge of Skink’s musical favorites is a moment of discovery; they have more in common than they realized. At this point, Richard’s identity revolves around his deceased father. This nostalgia bridges some of the gaps between Richard and Skink.

“Skink knelt by the blue SUV and calmly poured an entire six-pack into the fuel tank. Then, just to make sure his message was received, he jammed the empties up the tailpipe.” 

Richard knows that Skink is willing to break the law to defend the environment because of his run-in with Olney. Here, he witnesses Skink’s retribution. Richard is worried someone will catch them more than he worries about the impact Skink’s actions will have on the vehicle owners. This highlights the moral ambiguity of his narration. The moment also affects his values; Richard has always been environmentally conscious but sees here the lengths that are sometimes necessary to protect wildlife.

“They lived in old hardwood forests throughout the southeastern United States until after the Civil War, when the timber industry moved in and started chopping down millions of trees. Eventually the birds had no more bark beetles to eat, no old dead trunks for pecking out their nest holes. Once it became known that ivorybills were disappearing, they were stalked and shot by hunters who sold the bodies to museums, so that they could be stuffed and put on display like dinosaurs. Pitiful but true.” 

Richard often comments on the devastating effects of humans on the natural world. Here, he laments the extinction of a bird species. Richard views these human actions as disgraceful. This sheds light on his moral alignment and his proclivity to protect nature from people. He shares this trait with Skink, which allows him to learn from the older man and find success in his journey. 

“After a while the embers turned to ash and stopped crackling. The only sound was Skink’s snoring, which gradually morphed into whimpers and then snarls. I wondered if the pain from his broken foot was giving him a nightmare, or if it was something left over from Vietnam. In school we’d read about what terrible combat experiences can do to a soldier—post-traumatic stress disorder, they call it.” 

Richard rarely frames Skink as vulnerable. However, witnessing Skink’s fit gives him a more human glimpse at the eccentric man. He acknowledges that Skink’s strange personality came from legitimate trauma. This also foreshadows a moment of weakness near the novel’s climax when another of Skink’s fits gives Terwin time to escape.

“We sat up talking. He told me about two friends who’d died fighting with him in Vietnam, and I told him about my father. We agreed that it sucked to lose somebody you love at a young age.” 

After waking from his nightmares, Skink allows Richard to know more about him. Through their respective trauma, they become closer as friends and allies. Both hide the depth of their trauma from the outside world, but they find commonality with one another through that same trauma. Richard must learn to look past Skink’s eccentricities to earn him as an ally. This moment of shared vulnerability helps him achieve that.

“…my driving was smooth and steady. Then we came up behind a truck, and that’s when I got the shakes. It was a tall brown UPS delivery truck, the same kind my father had crashed into on his skateboard. An awful thought wormed into my head: This is the last sight Dad ever saw.” 

Richard must learn to drive after Skink’s injury, otherwise their journey will come to a premature end. However, Richard’s trauma hinders his first drive on a public road. Before this, the depth of Richard’s grief is not clear. He sometimes speaks glibly about the death of his father. When it manifests physically, though, he cannot hide it. Until he learns how to cope with his grief, he cannot complete his journey.

“On both sides of the river the forest cover was thick, the ground pitted and mucky. Once in a while we’d pass a flat dry clearing or a boat landing, but most of the terrain was dense, tangled and uneven. A person trying to dash through it would be constantly tripping on vines and stumbling over cypress knees.” 

As Richard and Skink get closer to Malley’s location, nature becomes a larger obstacle. Richard sees why Malley has not escaped on her own. This further imprisons her on Terwin’s houseboat. The rugged foliage foreshadows Richard and Malley’s difficult journey—and deflated sense of safety—after escaping the houseboat. 

“Like so many bird watchers, he was guilty of wishful thinking. The ivorybill was extinct, gone forever. Sad but true.” 

Richard refuses to believe that the ivorybill woodpecker survives. While this explores his cynical attitude toward human treatment of nature, it also relates to his father. No matter how much he wishes for his father to be alive, he is gone forever. Richard must accept his father’s death just as he believes Skink should accept that the ivorybill is extinct. 

“They don’t make that model anymore, and even online they’re hard to find. The one my father was riding when he crashed into the UPS truck got run over and split to pieces by the ambulance. I salvaged the wheels and trucks, which I later attached to the deck that I’d lifted from the shop.”

Richard explains his reasoning for stealing the skateboard. Like many of his decisions, it is related to his father’s life and death. The theft is his biggest secret, one that only Malley and the store owner know before he tells Skink. Richard puts the board together with his father’s wheels to symbolically continue his father’s life past death. However, he immediately hides the board and refuses to ride it, just as he buries his grief rather than confronting it. 

“I got to a frightening account of what happened in certain towns when powerful chemicals were sprayed to kill insects like bark beetles and fire ants. Right away the wildlife began dying—squirrels, opossums, rabbits, even the neighborhood cats. Children would awake to dead-silent mornings because all the songbirds had been killed by the poison. Hawks, owls and bald eagles fell sick, too—and those that survived stopped having babies.” 

Richard reads Skink’s book to distract himself from his mentor’s disappearance. Richard’s education about the effects of human choices on nature continues without Skink present. Again, Richard bemoans the slaughter of wildlife at the hands of people. This further engrains him in the world of environmental activism, which aids him later in his quest and brings him closer to his greatest ally.

“Skink would have been back by now, if he were coming. Either the gator had nailed him or he’d drowned from exhaustion while pursuing the loose canoe. It was time for me to face facts—the man was old, half-crippled, and the swollen river was strong. The thought of him dying made me feel empty and sick-hearted, but I couldn’t hand around waiting any longer.” 

The hero and his mentor separate. A major milestone in the hero’s journey is the protagonist’s ability to move forward on their journey alone. Without this solitary trial, they cannot be worthy of success. Skink’s disappearance leaves Richard with two options: He can turn back or continue his quest alone. By pushing forward, he chooses to fulfill the responsibilities of the journey regardless of the dwindling odds of success.

“Her hair was dyed jet black, even blacker than her jeans. She looked scrawny, and both arms were covered with mosquito bites. The pink bracelets I’d thought I’d seen weren’t bracelets at all—they were raw marks made by the handcuffs.” 

When Richard first sees Malley, her physical appearance has changed drastically. Terwin’s goal as the antagonist is to control Malley’s identity; Richard’s role as protagonist pushes him to free her. At this point, Malley forfeits her identity to Terwin. She is at her weakest moment when Richard finds her. 

“He was shoeless, shirtless and bareheaded, so the damage was on full display—seeping tooth wounds in his neck, a partial bite imprint on one shoulder, a grid of vivid welts on his chest that matched the armored ridges of the reptile’s tail. He had emerged from the river sopping and crowned with slimy hydrilla weeds that made him look like some sort of demented sea monarch. Among the sprigs of his beard dangled moist purplish leeches, several of which had attached to his hide-like cheeks.” 

“He was shoeless, shirtless and bareheaded, so the damage was on full display—seeping tooth wounds in his neck, a partial bite imprint on one shoulder, a grid of vivid welts on his chest that matched the armored ridges of the reptile’s tail. He had emerged from the river sopping and crowned with slimy hydrilla weeds that made him look like some sort of demented sea monarch. Among the sprigs of his beard dangled moist purplish leeches, several of which had attached to his hide-like cheeks.” 

“One time I asked my father, who was super-laid-back, if he believed in evil […] And I remember Dad mulling my question for a few moments before saying that true evil was rare, but, yes, it was real. He also said that it didn’t occur in any other species besides humans, and I believe he was right. Violence and brutal domination exist in the animal world as a means for survival, not as sport or sick amusement.” 

Richard’s environmental views predate his relationship with Skink. Just as with the skateboard, it is due to his father’s influence. His answer to Richard’s question touches on the idea of moral ambiguity. He does not assign human morals to animals. The same is true of Skink. This belief sets them apart from Terwin, who behaves recklessly toward nature. Understanding this fundamental truth gives them an advantage, especially as their journey takes them further into natural terrain. 

“‘My mom and dad were sending me off to boarding school,’ Malley said, ‘up in freaking New Hampshire. The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like a prison sentence.’” 

Malley explains why she ran away. Her parents threatened to take away her identity and autonomy by sending her to a school that did not reflect her wishes. Rather than give up her independence, she ran away. However, Terwin proves to be a more significant menace to her autonomy. She relates boarding school to prison, and Terwin uses handcuffs on her multiple times on their trip. 

“The situation inside was heading downhill. Outside, the storm gave no signs of letting up.” 

Nature acts as an ally and a hindrance to Richard’s quest. Weather represents nature’s unpredictable, dangerous side. As the action ramps up toward the novel’s climax, the weather commensurately worsens. This presents Richard and his allies with an even playing field against Terwin, who loses his balance and his firearm as the houseboat floats down the choppy river. However, it also makes Richard’s predicament more dangerous. Nature creates fairness through its unpredictability.

“Skink would know when it was time to abandon ship. Would he take Tommy with him? I could totally picture the governor coming out of the river alone, the kidnaper’s body being found days later in the sunken wreck. Or never seen again. From what Skink had told me about his life, I knew he was capable of such things.” 

Skink is as unpredictable as nature. Richard isn’t sure what to expect from his mentor. He knows that Skink is capable of great violence, which adds to the ambiguity and confusion of the moment. Richard has no clue what will happen next—to Skink or to him and Malley. He doesn’t judge the possibility of Skink allowing Terwin to die, though. He ruminates on Skink’s decision rather than Terwin’s safety. The moment also foreshadows Terwin’s death in the river.

“I understood that Malley needed to see him caught on the river, to be there in person, not just go home and trust the police to find him. She needed a final word, a final something.” 

Character goals shift throughout the plot, especially in the moments leading up to its climax. Malley no longer wants to escape Terwin and flee home. Instead, she wants to reclaim her autonomy by witnessing Terwin’s punishment. She needs closure. 

“Poised high in a moss-draped cypress was the Lord God Bird, one bright eye slanted down toward us. The woodpecker was a full-grown male, regally tall and more vividly colored than the drawing we’d used for my science project.” 

Richard is in awe of nature’s beauty and its ability to survive. Seeing the woodpecker proves the resilience of wildlife, and it parallels Richard and Malley’s survival. Just as the ivorybill persevered through peril, so did they. This is a reward from nature to Richard: proof that strength enough to survive devastation exists. He can move past the loss of his father just as the woodpecker survived the loss of its habitat. 

“Back when I didn’t believe the ivorybill still existed, Skink had warned me that if word of a sighting ever leaked out, the river basin would be overrun by tour boats, swamp buggies and roadside souvenir shops, all sorts of greedheads trying to make a buck off the bird. He’d said the one he saw might be the last of its kind on the entire planet, or maybe the first of a hardy new generation, but either way it deserved peace and solitude. He might as well have been talking about himself.” 

Skink makes it clear that he wants to remain “dead” as far as the larger world is concerned. Like sightings of the ivorybill, proof of Skink’s existence would cause a swarm of attention around him. To Skink and the ivorybill, this would be a loss of independence and perhaps even survival. Richard agrees. He sees the beauty in Skink’s uniqueness and wishes to preserve it just as he tries to protect the ivorybill’s environment.

“Malley and I wonder […] whether Skink somehow knew what would happen to T.C., even before the gator appeared—whether it’s possible for a person to be so powerfully connected to nature that he develops an almost mystical kind of intuition. The governor’s reaction to that shocking scene was so mild and matter-of-fact that you couldn’t help but wonder if he was expecting something like that all along.”

Even after they become close, Skink is a mystery to Richard. Richard sees Skink almost as a part of nature, and he knows that Skink accepts nature’s brutality. He wonders if Skink has a supernatural connection to the environment and wildlife. If so, it is possible that he knew nature was preparing to punish Terwin for his maltreatment of innocents. 

“After I got back home, I pulled the Birdhouse from my hiding spot in the box springs beneath my mattress. I didn’t want Mom to get sad if she saw it, so I waited until she left for the office before I put on my helmet and rode the board down A1A.” 

Part of Richard’s emotional journey is the acceptance of his father’s death. He hides the depth of his grief despite partaking in some of his father’s favorite activities and sharing an environmentally conscious morality. When he steals the skateboard, his inability to accept his father’s death prevents him from riding it. After his quest, he learns to celebrate his father’s life without allowing his death to define his identity.