Summary
Chapter 18
Dad tells Michael that Mrs. Dando called to check in, and that his friends want him back. He shrugs.
At the hospital, the baby seems to be getting better, but Michael feels how small and thin she is. He hears her breath rattle.
Michael asks a nurse where the people with arthritis go, and she sends him up to Floor 34. He sees an old woman puffing along with a walker. She smiles, though, and says she will be dancing soon. Michael tells her he has a friend with arthritis; she says Arthur usually wins in the end, but cod-liver oil, a positive attitude, and Dr. MacNabola—with his scissors, saw, and plastic bits—help.
The rest of the floor is full of people in beds or pushing walkers. Some look like they are in pain. A man in black strides from person to person with a gaggle of doctors and students around him. Michael calls out to him and asks what is good for arthritis. Surprised, the man stops and tells him "the needle" is. He mimics sawing and sewing, and the others smile. He then says the answer is simple: cod-liver oil and moving around.
The nurse watches as the group and doctor walk away. She tells Michael that the doctor likes to show off, but that he is a good doctor.
Michael returns to the baby’s room. Mum hugs him tight and tells him he is her best boy. He and Dad go home, and Dad tells him to go off with Mina.
Chapter 19
Michael goes to Mina’s house. He meets her kind mother, who shows him to where Mina is making things out of clay. Her book of bird drawings is out. Mrs. McKee says Mina is currently fascinated with birds but has had many other obsessions.
Michael admires her work and she shows him how it is done. It seems like magic. Michael starts fashioning his baby sister out of clay. He looks at Mina and tells her with his eyes that they should go. She informs her mother they're going for a walk.
Chapter 20
Michael warns Mina that the place is dangerous and filthy, but she is excited. He procures his flashlight and beer and evinces his worry that she won’t be able to see what he sees. She squeezes his hand and says that she will.
They creep in and the man’s voice squeaks, “Again?” Mina gasps. Michael moves over to him and helps with the beer. Mina’s eyes are wide and dark. She asks who he is, and he says, “Mr. Had Enough of You.” He grumbles "no" to doctors and utters that he will crumble away. Michael gives him the cod-liver capsules. Tears form in his eyes and Michael tells Mina that the man does not want help: he is just waiting here to die.
Mina crouches down and picks up one of the numerous dark, furry balls beside him. She asks how long he has been here and if he is dead. She tells him her name and touches his hands. She says he is in the process of calcification, which is linked to the ossifying of the mind. The roof trembles and dust falls.
Michael guides Mina's hands to the man's shoulder blades and she feels what is there. She whispers to the man that they can help him, but he does not answer. Finally, she tells him there is a better place they can take him. Michael gives him more beer and capsules. The man sighs that they can do what they want.
Chapter 21
Outside, Mina breathes that the man is an extraordinary being. They agree to take him out tonight; they’ll hoot like owls. Whisper follows her away.
Later, Dad comes out and asks if Michael likes Mina. He says she is extraordinary.
Chapter 22
Michael dreams of the baby and himself in the blackbirds’ nest and the doctors calling for him to bring her down. The baby flaps and squeals—her wings aren’t strong enough yet. She teeters on the edge. Michael hears a hoot.
He awakens and goes down to Mina. They sneak through the moonlit gardens and enter the garage. The man groans, wobbles, and creaks, but they help him stand. He can walk a bit, but his body shudders and his breath rattles. Dust and dead bugs fall from him. However, in the light it seems like he is old, not young. Mina whispers that he is beautiful.
Outside, the sounds of the first dawn traffic can be heard. The children have to carry the man, but he is surprisingly light. They feel the place where his wings are.
Mina pushes open the gate of the house with the “Danger” sign on it, and the two of them bring the man inside. She tells him they’ll make him more comfortable, and Michael adds that they'll bring 27 and 53.
Mina kisses his cheek and asks who he is. He winces with pain and says that his name is Skellig.
Chapter 23
Mrs. Dando stops by in the morning with a packet of homework, including evolution worksheets, math problems, and a book with a red sticker on it. Michael goes over to visit Mina and she makes fun of the worksheets and the fact that the red sticker means the book is for advanced readers. She wonders what people would classify William Blake as, and she recites his poem “Tyger.”
Mrs. McKee admonishes her daughter, telling her to be polite. Mina writes in her diary and Michael thinks about how the diaries they are supposed to do at school are read and graded by the teacher. Michael pretends to read the book. He thinks of the baby and tears fill his eyes. Mina apologizes for being sarcastic and squeezes his hand, telling him she is excited to see Skellig again.
Chapter 24
On their way to Skellig, Mina explains to Michael that this place was her grandfather’s and he left it to her: she will inherit it when she is 18. It will be repaired soon and rented, but for now, it is perfect for Skellig.
Skellig isn’t where they left him, though: they find him almost all the way up the first flight of stairs to the attic. He is exhausted, pained, and wants to go higher. They carry him up to a bedroom and give him a pillow, dishes, aspirin, cod-liver oil, beer, a sandwich, and chocolate. Some tears slip from Skellig’s eyes.
Mina reaches to him, whispering for him to trust her, and takes off his jacket. They can see his wings, twisted and uneven, and she helps bring them out. They are large and magnificent. Skellig tells her to let him sleep.
Skellig settles and falls asleep. Michael feels the wings. He then tiptoes to the window. Mina asks what he is doing, and he says that he is seeing if the world is still really there.
Chapter 25
The baby is back in her glass cage. Michael can hear his breathing and his parents’ breathing. They are sniffling. Michael tries to listen as deeply as he can, and he picks up his sister’s heartbeat. He holds it.
In the car on the way home, Dad cries. Michael remembers the baby’s breathing and heartbeat; he concentrates on being silent and keeping the baby safe.
Chapter 26
Mina and Michael are looking at a book of dinosaurs and she is talking about how some people think dinosaurs evolved into birds. She explains how hollow and light their bones are. Michael listens quietly. He thinks of the baby and Skellig, and Mina whispers that evolution continues and that they are extraordinary.
Then Michael hears some snickers and sees Leakey and Coot.
Chapter 27
Michael joins Leakey and Coot playing football but is hopeless at it, and they criticize him. They make fun of Mina and say she changed him.
Michael walks away and wishes things were the same, but then he wishes that the boys would go away. The boys follow him and he says the baby is sick. They acknowledge this glumly. Coot kicks the ball against the garage boards and Michael abruptly tells him to stop. Coot becomes annoyed and they almost fight. They hear a crack in the garage. Dust begins to fall. Michael says he will get his dad.
Chapter 28
Dad nails some boards across the garage and puts up a sign that says “Danger.” He tells Leakey and Coot that it is nice to see them and that Michael has been mopey.
After Dad leaves, Leakey and Coot tease Michael again about Mina, and they are surprised to learn that she doesn’t go to school and that she thinks one doesn’t really learn there. Michael defends this and says the world is full of amazing things and he’s seen them. Part of him wishes he could tell his friends about these things, but he doesn’t.
The boys notice Mina in her tree and make fun of her for being a monkey girl.
Chapter 29
When Leakey and Coot are gone, Mina looks coldly down at Michael and quotes Blake saying that he is glad he never went to school to be flogged and be a fool. Michael hotly says that schoolchildren don’t get flogged and his friends aren’t fools—and Mina isn’t special.
Mina retorts that his friends hate her and they’re annoying because they screech, kick, and yell; they know nothing about her, yet they hate her. Michael says she knows nothing of them. She tells him to go. He kicks the wall and leaves, heading straight into the garden to try to hold back his tears.
Chapter 30
In the middle of the night, the owls wake Michael up. He can see nothing, but he thinks of Skellig. He moves between dreaming and waking. He envisions Skellig reaching into the baby case and helping his sister fly. They are both joyful.
Michael wakes again and dresses for the cold night air. Outside, he sees Whisper and heads towards Mina’s empty house. She is sitting there and they look at each other. Both sincerely apologize and pledge their friendship to each other. They smile and almost drift off to sleep, but eventually they go inside the house.
Chapter 31
Without a flashlight, it is difficult to navigate the old house and they stumble as best they can to where they left Skellig. He is not there, but his things are. They are both worried and grasp hands. Mina whispers to be calm and listen deeply.
Finally, they hear Skellig’s breathing from far off. They follow it up the attic. There Skellig sits before the window frame, his wings opened wide. He doesn't turn, and the children say nothing. An owl flies in and drops something for Skellig. Another owl does the same, and the first does it again. Mina realizes they are feeding him.
Skellig turns to look at them and asks them to come forward. They meet in the middle of the room and Michael can see how strong Skellig now seems. They hold hands and turn about in a dance. Each face goes from dark to light. Michael is overwhelmed and wants to stop, but the other two encourage him to hold on. Michael finally feels the others’ beating hearts, and a smile spreads across his face. It is as if they were one thing, one being. It seems like he has his own wings, and Mina has wings, and they rise up over the old house on Crow Road.
Then it is over, and Skellig tells them to go home. Michael asks how this is possible; Skellig replies that it is the owls and the angels, and that they must remember this night.
The two children leave and Michael feels an immense joy. He laughs about his wings and tries to catch his breath.
As he nears his own house, though, he sees a very worried Dad rush toward him. Mina quickly says they were sleepwalking.
Analysis
While most young readers may not be familiar with the concept of magical realism as articulated in regard to the works of those such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Isabel Allende, and Toni Morrison, they will be able to intuitively pick up on Almond’s seamless and poetic blending of the magical and the realistic. There is magic within the mundane world, and this makes the novel irrepressibly moving.
The characteristics of magic realism are: an irreducible element of magic; a grounding in the realistic world; production of doubts in the reader due to the mix of the real and the fantastic; the near merging of two realms or worlds; and disruptions of traditional ideas about time, space, and identity (Wendy B. Faris, referenced in Don Latham’s article). In regard to the first, Skellig certainly is not a human man, for he has wings under his jacket. Second, Michael and the other characters occupy what we understand as a recognizable, human, mundane world. There are humdrum activities like homework, ordering takeout, working in the garden, going to the hospital, etc. Don Latham also sees that the narration style is “matter-of-fact,” which “[reinforces] the elements of realism. Michael evinces “a mixture of wonder and childlike acceptance,” and as a result, the reader “is implicitly encouraged to accept the mysterious characters and fantastic events as factual, much like the more mundane elements of the [story].”
However, the reader of Skellig has some doubts. There is, as Latham notes, “an unresolved inexplicability” surrounding Skellig. Michael isn’t sure, but then Mina confirms that Skellig is there. All the same, Skellig’s ultimate explanation of sorts that he is part bird, beast, angel, human does little to settle the reader. There is not much closure at the end of the work, and the reader may wonder if Michael and Mina have invented this figure. Fourth, two different realms are merged through the dreams that Michael experiences. He dreams of his baby sister merged with the blackbird, and doctors who seem to offer more harm than help also permeate them. The dreams are “surreal and disturbing” but also “reflect a psychological truth in that they symbolically depict his fear that his sister may die.” Similarly, Mum’s “dream” blends reality—her daughter surviving—and surreality—Skellig visiting her daughter and twirling with her. Fifth, time does act on the characters, but it does so in odd ways. Skellig seems to come from another world, as his origins are unknown, but he is subject to the ravages of time in this world: he is weak, sick, exhausted, hungry, and arthritic.
Almond’s use of magical realism is ultimately to “illustrate his adolescent characters’ capacity for discernment, kindness, and discretion.” The children’s encounters with Skellig help them get to know themselves, to grow, to deepen, and to show how they, too, are extraordinary beings.
It will not escape readers that the works of William Blake play a large role in the novel, with Mina and her mother quoting his poems, looking at his drawings, and more. Mina evokes Blake in the context of education, angels, birds, fainting, life, and beauty. Blake was one of the most influential English poets and artists, prone to mysticism and iconoclastic spirituality. Almond uses Blake’s work Songs of Innocence and Experience in Skellig to augment his own themes and to, as Latham writes, “parallel Michael and Mina’s growth from childhood to adolescence.” Almond doesn’t see innocence and experience as binaries, however; he “offers another possibility: the concept of the child as morally complex, capable of wonder and also great empathy.”
