“And,” Lucas said, taking out one more box from where he’d stashed it in the cupboard where we kept the cheese grater, “here’s one more. For you.” He handed it to Cole.

“It’s not his birthday,” I said and they both looked at me, offended.

Cole unwrapped it. It was something they sold at the little gift shop at the landing. A miniature island in a glass dome. When you shook it, sparkles rained down on the sand, the blue plastic waves, the trees in the center of the island, the houses, the shops, the tiny plastic seal on its tiny plastic rock.

“It’s not much,” Lucas said. “It’s supposed to be Wolf Island.”

I felt sick with envy. A stupid gift from a stupid tourist shop, a stupid snow globe. But I wanted it. I wanted it for myself.

“Okay, smile,” I said, grabbing the camera. My voice was bitter as metal, and they looked at me, surprised, suspicious. But they obeyed, standing with their arms around each other awkwardly.

“Got it,” I said. The envy seemed to change, mutate, grow spines, wings. It took off, great uneven breaststrokes through my own chest cavity. I was in charge now, I thought. I was telling the story. The next thing that was going to happen: I was going to find his name.

Tuck and I looked up email addresses and composed an email. We sent the photo as an attachment. We started with the secretary at the Lindenberg High School. “Secretaries are always helpful,” Tuck said. We also emailed librarians, the police department, and the fire department. This was my fifth trip to Carson Cove, and it was getting easier—incrementally—every time.

There was a weird reversal happening with my visits. It was now on the island that I felt crazy. I felt it in me like something boiling on a fire. Faster and faster, hotter and still hotter. I felt things evaporating at alarming speeds. The only relief was to be in Carson Cove with Tuck. There, things quieted to a simmer. It was so organized, so planned, those excursions off the ferry. Each step felt premeditated. We were like children working on a school project, that soothing level of safety. I felt like someone’s mom should appear at any moment with crackers and milk.

That afternoon Tuck waited with me for the ferry back to the island. Then he turned to me. “Why don’t I just go with you?”

“What? To the island? Now?”

“Why not? I could meet Lucas and Cole, and see where you live.”