The List

Letta thinks that Noa’s building looks like a spaceship carved into the base of a mountain. A woman named Amelia Deer opens the door. She is the second-most powerful person in Ark, and has what people call, “the breathing problem” (98). There are rumors that chemicals damaged her lungs.

Amelia leads Letta to a platform in a room where Noa looks out the window from a platform that sways in the wind. Letta says she doesn’t like heights and Noa takes her inside. He gives her water and says they don’t have to speak List, since she is a wordsmith. Then he tells her that Benjamin is dead, which means Letta is the only wordsmith in Ark. He gives his condolences and leaves her. Amelia enters the room and does the same. She says Benjamin helped build Ark, and Letta should be proud. Amelia tells her that a scavenger named Smith Fearfall found Benjamin’s body, which had been torn apart by animals. Then Amelia gives Letta Benjamin’s satchel.

Letta opens the bag at the shop. It contains a piece of plastic that says Sunshine Replacement Therapy (104) on it. Letta can’t believe she will never ask Benjamin about a word again. She sleeps and dreams of growing waves that threaten her sailboat. A giant word, Dead, rises from the water before breaking over her and driving her to the ocean floor.

The next day, Letta grieves, wonders about Marlo, and hopes that Daniel can be saved. She makes a list for the healer’s wife and then studies one of Benjamin’s maps. She sees that he wrote the words THE RIVER next to a line. This confuses Letta. Amelia said the scavenger found Benjamin south of the river, but that was miles away from the main road, which Benjamin rarely departed from. Letta wants to he wants to talk to Fearfall. Then she remembers that it was Marlo who mentioned the river.

Letta plans to visit Tintown to find Fearfall. Gavvers let her pass through the gate into the stinking shantytown. There are vermin everywhere. A boy shoots a catapult at her face, then kicks her when she falls to the ground. Other children rush in and search her pockets. A small woman intervenes and drives them away before they take Benjamin’s bag.

When Letta mentions Fearfall, the woman suggests they go to the water hole. The smells grow worse as the crowd thickens. Letta gives water to an old man with an open wound in his leg. He says he came to Tintown after the Melting because scientists were not welcome in Ark. A young man named Kirch Tellon tells Letta that he knows Fearfall.

Letta meets Fearfall and walks with him. He says he gave Benjamin’s bag to Noa, but he doesn’t seem to recognize it as the bag Letta is carrying. When she asks about the river, he ends the interview and runs away.

As she leaves Tintown, she sees a fire—which is forbidden—off the path. The people around the fire are the Wordless: people with no language. No one knows their story. When she reaches the mill in Ark, a forest is painted on its giant wall. An old man with a paintbrush says, “This is art! Look at it! This is what John Noa is afraid of! You have a right to express yourself! You are human, not animal! Feast your eyes! Don’t be afraid!” (123). Gavvers beat him to the ground before turning on the crowd. At home, she thinks about the old man: he is a Desecrator. Letta decides that she doesn’t believe Fearfall found Benjamin. She wants to see the river for herself, and she thinks Marlo can help her.

At Central Kitchen, Carver asks her for words for his apprentices. In Benjamin’s library, she finds a box marked Gavver. Then she begins the process of making ink from beetroot. Mary Pepper had to bring her the stove to use, which pleased Letta, because Mary hates words and wordsmiths. Two of the words in the box for the gavvers are Artist and Report.

Benjamin taught her that the Desecrators were originally called artists. Werber enters and asks if she saw a Desecrator yesterday. Then he says the old artist is now underground at the gavver base. Werber brags about kicking sand into his eyes through the grate. He then invites Letta to go for a walk, and pouts when she declines. When she was 10, Letta knew Werber wanted her as a mate. There is a two-child rule in Ark. Third children are usually given to another family, which is what happened to Werber. Fourth children result in banishment of the parents.

Letta thinks the painter can help her contact Marlo. She goes to the gavvers’ base and remember the old man’s plea for them to express themselves. Inside, she says she has words for Carver. As she waits, she tries to get a young gavver to tell her about the prisoners, but Carver interrupts them. However, she does learn that the Desecrator’s name is Hugo.

Outside, she calls into the grating and Hugo, who is shackled to a wall, answers. They hear the screams of a tortured prisoner as they talk. He asks why she wants Marlo and says that he has heard about her. He says to leave a message under a stone by the Goddess statue before dawn. Letta gives him a small water bottle just before the young gavver approaches and urinates on Hugo through the grate.

Letta wants to hurt him but she’s helpless. At home, she hates that she’s going to write a message to Desecrators, but she is determined to learn more. Then she finds a message in the drop box: “BENJAMIN NOT DEAD” (142).

Letta knows it could be a trick. Noa told her Benjamin was dead. She wonders if Fearfall lied to Noa. She writes a note that says, “Need help. Letta” (144). The she tries to stay calm as she walks to the Goddess statue. On the way, she hears the windmills that power Ark for a few hours each day. Noa and the Green Warriors are an exception—they have constant power.

As she approaches the statue, she hears Rose—the healer’s wife and Daniel’s mother—praying for Daniel. Letta touches her shoulder, and she eventually stops crying. Letta says she and her friends might have help for Daniel but doesn’t say more. She feels guilty at Rose’s hopeful reaction. After Rose leaves, Letta leaves the message and goes to Central Kitchen. She is desperate for water after giving her bottle to Hugo.

Mrs. Truckle visits and asks for the ink. Letta has forgotten and it isn’t ready yet, so Mrs. Truckle helps prepare it. In the other room, Letta finds Rose waiting for her with a large bottle of water; it is a thank you gift for Letta. Rose looks at Letta the way she looked at the Goddess statue, which makes Letta uncomfortable. After Mrs. Truckle leaves, Marlo walks in, wearing a coat and hood. He says Letta sent for him with the note. She tells him about Hugo. He was banished that morning, and Marlo says that now they can’t hurt him. Letta says she doesn’t believe Benjamin is dead, and Marlo wants to question Fearfall.

John Noa arrives unexpectedly at the door. Marlo introduces himself as Leo from Tintown and Letta kicks him out, as if he were a troublesome customer. Noa laughs and approves of Letta’s new assertiveness after she invites him in. He asks her about discussing Benjamin with Fearfall. Noa says Fearfall was at the river because he sent him to look for Benjamin. Noa and Benjamin were old friends, even before the Melting. Benjamin wrote about global warming on the Internet. He was called a conspiracy theorist. Noa orders Letta to ask him her questions from now on and says that she belongs in the future, not the past.

In his internal monologue, Noa remembers three weeks of rain leading up to the Melting. The Green Warriors arranged the programming and built a new city in preparation. They made filters that could extract salt from seawater. In Ark, they would control all drinkable water. Millions of people and animals died during the Melting. Noa thinks scornfully and tearfully of the head of the United Nations, who had told the assembly, “I have nothing left to give you…. Nothing but my words” (158). Noa looks forward to the coming destruction of all language.