Tom’s eyes widen. This is heavy stuff. The idea that the creatures have changed…

He thinks of the man from the bait shop. He didn’t die when he left. This after saying he was close to looking.

Did he look?

Tom reads:

Without being able to verify if she lives the way she claims, I only have our brief encounter to judge her by. And by my own estimation, Athena Hantz is sane.

Tom nods along with the words. He’s impressed the census man felt compelled to include this. He wants to wake his mom, to show her, to say, see, see? Not everybody who thinks differently than Malorie is mad!

Athena Hantz.

Without any idea what she looks or sounds like, Tom imagines Athena Hantz is his mother instead. What would it mean for him to have been raised by a person like this in a place like that?

Indian River already feels more like home than Camp Yadin ever did.

He reads on:

In every corner of this community, somebody is attempting something new. For this, they’ve had their share of tragedies.

Tom nods. Of course they have. They had to have. That’s how invention works. Failures are guaranteed.

Doesn’t Malorie understand that? Doesn’t she get that you can wear a blindfold your entire life, but all you’re doing is perpetuating the lie that you cannot see?

One such instance occurred while attempting to “slow down” the process of insanity by securing a volunteer to a tree and leaving her outside to “watch all night.” The thinking here was that, if the person who has gone mad does not receive immediate gratification, perhaps the initial urge will subside, and the feelings of wanting to hurt herself or another would eventually go away. The community of Indian River fed soup to a madwoman this way, a woman tied to the tree, who did not, it turns out, avoid the known demise. Rather, she pretended to, ten days tied to the tree, and when the others cut her loose, finally, she lashed out. NOTE: While this sounds foolish and is something most survivors would never consider, the people of Indian River did learn from this experience. The initial, manic urge did indeed subside. But, unfortunately for those involved, it was replaced with cunning. This begs the question: who else out there has seen a creature but was incapable of carrying out their immediate fantasies? Who else out there is feigning sanity? I do not know if Athena Hantz was present for this experiment.

Tom has to stop to consider this one. It’s all so amazing. While he’s factored in ways of viewing the creatures, he’s never considered altering the actual effect they have on people. As if madness were a malleable thing, a thing to be tamed.