Days after her seventh birthday, Kya sees strangers arrive: Mrs. Culpepper, a truant officer, and a silent man in a gray fedora. Hungry and tempted by the promise of a hot lunch, Kya agrees to go to school. Placed in second grade, she mis-spells “dog,” is laughed at, and falls silent. At lunch she hides food for later, avoids boys she recognizes, and is ignored by her peers. On the bus home, two girls taunt her, and Kya flees to the beach to feed gulls and cry.

When the truant officers return in the following weeks, Kya evades them using the marsh’s cover and tracking tricks until they give up. She decides never to go back to school, returning instead to watching herons and collecting shells where she feels safe.

Weeks later, playing pirates, Kya steps on a rusty nail. Terrified of lockjaw and with Pa absent, she soaks the wound in brackish water, packs it with mud, keeps her jaw moving, and survives on crackers and Crisco. After two days, then a week, she senses she is safe; by the eighth day the pain subsides, confirming her self-reliance and Pa’s neglect.

As months pass into a mild winter, Kya still listens for Ma’s cooking but accepts the silence. The land steadies her, fear gives way to competence, and the marsh becomes her mother, a living presence that replaces the family who left.