How It All Goes Down
- After Grandpa's death, Jacob is haunted by nightmares of the creature with tentacles that killed Gramps. Seems reasonable to us.
- He stops leaving the house and falls into a deep depression.
- It doesn't help that no one believes him, and his friendship with his best friend (read: only friend) Ricky falls apart, because even Ricky swears he never saw it.
- The official conclusion is that a pack of feral dogs killed Grandpa. Here's the video.
- Jacob's parents send him to Dr. Golan, a psychiatrist, who diagnoses him with "acute stress reaction" (2.26). His mother "[doesn't] see anything cute about it" (2.26), though. #momjokes
- One day in therapy, Jacob tells Dr. Golan about Grandpa's last words, about the bird and the loop and something about Emerson.
- Dr. Golan encourages him to research Emerson, but that doesn't help since Emerson died way before September 3, 1940.
- Dr. Golan's next piece of advice is for Jacob to return to the scene of the crime, so he goes with his dad and Aunt Susie to sort through Grandpa's things.
- Dad and Suze just want to throw everything away, which upsets Jacob; he stomps up to Grandpa's bedroom, where he finds a cigar box under the bed.
- Lots of Grandpa's weird photos are in there: contortionists, twins, a girl trapped in a bottle.
- Jacob thinks they're all fake, so he trashes them.
- He soon turns sixteen, and his mom throws a party for him.
- He gets a digital camera (what year are we in, 2004?) and keys to a car, and, from Aunt Susie, The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
- She found it in Grandpa's stuff, and it seems he wanted Jacob to have it. We even see an illustration of Grandpa's inscription: "To Jacob Magellan Portman." (Magellan?)
- There's a letter inside the book, a handwritten one from Headmistress Alma LeFay Peregrine; she talks about the island and how someone named "E" misses him.
- The return address is Cairnholm Island, in Wales.
- Jacob wonders if this is the island Grandpa said he grew up on. He wants to go check it out.
- His parents think this is a ridiculous idea, but when Dr. Golan says that the trip might help his anxiety, they agree to it.
- Dad will go, too, because he's an ornithologist and wants to research the birds on the island.
- Before the trip, Jacob tries to verify that a Ms. Alma LeFay Peregrine lives on the island, but he can't get through on the island's one phone.
- This is going to be quite the trip.