47 pages • 1 hour read
Laura MartinFloat
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
All of the Red Maple boys write life lists and start checking things off. Murphy feels particularly enthusiastic about having new experiences. On Friday evening, the campers play capture the flag again. It starts raining just as the game is about to begin, and Emerson assumes they will have to cancel it, as he has “never been out in the rain for more than a few seconds, usually sheltered under [his] mother’s umbrella while she squeal[s] about her hair” (103). But, the game continues, and everyone gets drenched. Emerson strays into another team’s territory, gets caught, and is put in their jail, which means standing in a creek. Anthony soon joins him. After half an hour, Hank, who is invisible except for one of his toes, arrives and frees them.
The boys run back toward their territory. On the way, they meet Zeke, who has managed to get another team’s flag. All of them make it back into their territory safely. Hank reappears naked, as his clothes do not disappear when he does. If he wants to be undetected, he has to take them off. Abruptly, Murphy time travels, disappearing into thin air. Mr. Blue tells the boys to place a circle of red rocks around his last position, as he will return there. If anything is in the exact space he occupied before he disappeared, it could kill him. Zeke volunteers to watch the rocks and wait for Murphy’s return.
Chapter 7 Summary
Emerson takes over the watch from Zeke. Murphy abruptly returns, upset and it’s obvious he’s been crying. Murphy confesses to Emerson that he is not going to survive the summer. He has been to the future, seen his own funeral, and talked to his parents after his own death. Murphy insists that Emerson tell nobody about his fate. Camp Outlier is expensive, and Murphy’s family is poor, so the Make-A-Wish foundation paid for him to come to the camp to have one last wonderful summer. Murphy does not know when or how he will die, except that at some point before the end of the camp, he will time travel and will not return. That is why his parents were so upset when they said goodbye to him.
Hank, who has been invisible the whole time, has overheard Murphy and Emerson’s conversation. He reappears and insists on trying to help Murphy survive, but Murphy refuses, as nothing can be done. Privately, Hank and Emerson decide that they will not give up on their friend.
Chapter 8 Summary
After dinner, some of the kids have to report to the nurse for medication or other treatments, including Emerson. At school, such medical interventions are always embarrassing, but at camp Emerson realizes that he is among friends. He sees Molly in line, and his heart flutters when she makes eye contact with him. Murphy has to go into a separate room to write his time travel report. The other boys return to the cabin. In the middle of the night, Hank wakes Emerson, wanting to have a meeting about Murphy. He has come up with 10 increasingly unlikely ways to prevent Murphy from time traveling and thereby save his life. Murphy writes a letter to his parents detailing the next couple of weeks, including some of Emerson and Hank’s failed attempts to stop him from time traveling. Parts of his letter have been redacted by the TTBI: “Censored censored censored censored censored censored censored censored censored censored. Isn’t that crazy?” (127).
Chapter 9 Summary
Emerson, Hank, and Murphy decide to go fishing one afternoon. The Monarch girls canoe in the lake, and Hank wants to join them. All of the regular canoes have been checked out, so the boys have to use a very old one. When they flip it over to put it in the water, they find a pile of snakes underneath it. Frightened, all of the boys scatter but once the snakes slither away, they take the canoe into the lake. They paddle out to the Monarch girls, but their canoe leaks. They try to bail it out, but it keeps sinking. Hank keeps flirting with the girls as the canoe sinks, and the three boys have to swim back to shore. Emerson feels pleased that the girls now know his name.
Chapter 10 Summary
One evening a few weeks later, Hank informs Emerson that they will be sneaking out that night after Eli falls asleep to have a midnight bonfire by the lake with the Monarch girls. Hank tells him he’s transferred his affections from Molly to Kirsty, a Monarch girl whose skin is burning hot to the touch. Emerson reflects on how much he’s changed since he arrived at camp. He feels much more confident now. All of the boys sneak out successfully (including Murphy, who is reluctant to join) and head down to the lake with a can of gasoline. On the way, Zeke temporarily loses his regular vision, and Mr. Stink alerts him so he can sit down before he trips. At the lake, they build a pyre, but the wood is wet. Anthony gets the fire going with help from the gasoline. The boys toast marshmallows while they wait for the girls to arrive. Hank announces to the group that they all have to work hard to save Murphy because he is going to die soon.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
In these chapters, Martin introduces one of the central conflicts in the novel: the quest to save Murphy’s life. As a time traveler, Murphy has uncommon insight into the future. He feels the weight of his ability like a burden, as he is required to keep his future knowledge secret even when it causes him great pain. Murphy’s unusual experiences explore Ableism and Disability, providing an example of the ways a society with an implicit bias of ableism can begin to infringe on a person’s rights, limiting their experiences and preventing them from Living Life Fully. While the TTBI ostensibly exists to keep people safe, Murphy has to follow strict rules or risk being incarcerated, even when following those rules poses a threat to his life. Nothing in Martin’s narrative suggests that the TTBI is able to (or willing to) save Murphy’s life, so that responsibility falls to a group of 12-year-olds instead.
Hank and Emerson’s determination to save Murphy’s life despite his protests is a testament to The Power of Friendship. While their first few attempts to prevent him from time traveling are unsuccessful, they’re committed to finding a solution. Hank makes the executive decision to tell all of the Red Maple boys about Murphy’s fate not because he wants to betray his friend’s trust, but because he—like many of the campers—is learning to trust in the value of community. He knows that the more brains working to find a plausible solution before it is too late will increase their chances of success. Without his friends’ help, Murphy will definitely die. None of them are willing to wait around for that to happen.
Martin’s characterization of Hank as a determined fighter with a gung-ho approach to life pays off, as both Murphy and Emerson grow to love and appreciate his friendship. When Emerson hides in the creek during the capture the flag game, Martin notes that he’s waiting for his “invisible best friend” (105). When Hank decides to go canoeing, Murphy and Emerson go with him, even when the snakes scare them and the boat starts to sink. Murphy might be fearful of Hank's propensity for meddling in his fate, but he appreciates Hank’s dedication to Living Life Fully. Of all the boys in Red Maple, Murphy takes on the challenge of a life list with the most gusto, evidencing the narrative stakes of his predicament—and, by extension, the stakes of the Red Maple boys’ quest to save his life. Confronting the reality of his own death gives Murphy a deep understanding of how important it is to live every moment to the fullest. He recognizes that it’s okay to encounter things that are frightening or uncomfortable, like a pile of snakes, as long as that fear does not stop him from embracing new experiences. Hank manages to convince all of the boys to attend a midnight bonfire, proving their commitment to their life lists. Emerson eventually gets on board with Hank’s schemes, but he finds them a little more difficult to accept than Murphy does, signaling that his arc is still in progress.
For Emerson, embracing the idea of Living Life Fully means learning to manage the anxiety cultivated in him by his experiences, his family’s attempts to protect him, and the ableism of society at large. To him, Hank’s ideas are brand new. He has lived such a sheltered life that he has never spent more than a few seconds outside in the rain and assumes that rain is a good enough reason to cancel any outdoor activity. Being at Camp Outlier allows him to unlearn some of that ableist perspective and gain a better ability to distinguish actual danger from discomfort and physical challenge. The camp also helps him understand how valuable community can be when he visits the nurse’s office and discovers he’s not the only one who needs medical interventions to manage his condition. Instead, Emerson finds he’s one of many kids who are all in the same boat. Their experiences become normalized, and they develop a sense of community and solidarity. By this point in the book, Emerson has already noticed a change in himself—his growth as a character. He feels more prepared for new things, and he is no longer as afraid that he might float away and die at any time. His circumstances with regard to his RISK factor have not changed, but his mindset has.
