58 pages • 1 hour read
Kheryn CallenderHurricane Child
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 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
Miss Joe invites Caroline to have lunch with her in her office, but she thinks others would deem her pathetic if they saw her. Caroline is also still suspicious of Miss Joe’s intentions. She has been watching Kalinda sit with Anise and Marie Antoinette, and over the course of a week, it seems Anise is no longer in charge. Kalinda smiles at Caroline, and something catches her eye. Caroline looks and sees the spirit of a white woman standing in her nightgown looking at Kalinda. Kalinda looks back at Caroline, confused but still smiling.
They make eye contact several times after this. Caroline believes she has the same question that Kalinda has for her: whether she sees what no one else can. Caroline can’t ask her point-blank because the others will be around, and if Caroline is wrong, she knows she’ll be bullied for it forever. However, she must know if Kalinda can also see spirits; she wants to feel validated and not invisible like she does from how everyone else treats her.
The lunch bell rings, and Caroline steps in front of Kalinda, Anise, and Marie Antoinette. She asks Kalinda to join her for lunch and Kalinda says yes. Everyone is shocked, especially Anise. Kalinda takes Caroline’s arm and they walk together. She tells Caroline that she’s from Barbados and has only been on Saint Thomas for a week because her dad is staying with his sister to try and find a carpentry job. She’s talking a lot, but Caroline realizes she doesn’t mind it—in fact, she loves it. Caroline is able to escape into Kalinda’s mind and see what it’s like to have her feelings and thoughts.
They sit at the spot in the cafeteria where Caroline usually sits alone, and everyone watches. Kalinda asks Caroline several questions about herself. Caroline tears up when Kalinda asks if she feels like she is split between two homes—between Saint Thomas and Water Island. Caroline thinks to herself that neither is her home since her mother isn’t on either island. Kalinda offers her a napkin and Caroline decides it’s the right time to ask her if she sees the woman too. Kalinda tilts her head and smiles and asks what she means, and Caroline believes it’s a pretense. She knows Kalinda saw the spirit, too.
Kalinda invites Caroline over, and after school, they walk through Main Street where there are tourists all around, no shade, and loud horns from a traffic jam. They continue to where the old market used to be, and Kalinda points out Mister Thompson, her neighbor, who plays accordion and sings at night. Kalinda tells Caroline that she sneaks out at night and falls asleep on the concrete listening to him.
Kalinda learns that Caroline has never heard an accordion play, and she tells her it’s not the prettiest instrument, but it’s different, and that’s what makes it important. Caroline makes her laugh when she replies that she thinks she might be the accordion. Kalinda says she thinks she might also be the accordion, but Caroline says she’s the violin. Kalinda tells Caroline she’s a drum. Caroline takes her hand, but she pulls it away and points to a store.
They enter and look at jewelry, and Caroline says she doesn’t like earrings very much. Kalinda then points to the shells, and Caroline picks one that she likes. Kalinda says she can’t buy it for her—however, Kalinda will later give Caroline a shell jewelry piece that’s even better, and this is the second gift Caroline will receive that isn’t from her parents.
They see two white women, tourists, holding hands as they shop. Although people stare at these two women, they don’t mind. Caroline has never seen grown women show that they care for each other. Kalinda says it’s disgusting and makes a joke about how one must think she’s a man, which is heartbreaking for Caroline to hear. Caroline goes along with her and makes a joke too. Kalinda then says, loudly enough for the women to hear, that it’s gross and wrong. One woman hears and looks at the girls. The woman looks like she could cry. Caroline says she agrees, and the woman looks even closer to crying. Caroline thinks to herself that there’s a part of her that could cry too.
Kalinda lives beside a large cemetery. They pass the children’s graves, and Caroline keeps her hands behind her back as she’s been told the ghosts of children can bite off fingers. Kalinda tells her a story about how she saw a girl collapse in a pew in church and die when she was six years old. “That was the day I stopped being a child,” Kalinda says (80). Caroline tells her the story about the man who died in the fire on Water Island during the fireworks and how when she heard he died she stopped being a child, too.
Kalinda’s father is in the living room shaving a chair leg from a block of wood. The girls greet him and he continues his carving. Kalinda’s mattress is on the floor of her bedroom because her father hasn’t yet made her bed frame. She tells Caroline that her father wanted to be a guitarist, but he lost his hearing when he was 18. She says that he found something to live for, but was forced to find another dream. This intimidates Caroline. Kalinda asks her if she has any dreams. Time passes in silence as Caroline tries to figure out what to say. She says she wants to find her mother.
Kalinda places her hand on top of Caroline’s, and Caroline knows she’s doing it in a comforting way, not like the white women holding hands at the market. Caroline tells Kalinda how her mother left home and that it must be because she doesn’t love her anymore. Kalinda replies, “There isn’t anything about you that would make me feel that you aren’t someone to love” (87-88). For the first time in a long time, Caroline feels seen.
Kalinda explains that she sometimes feels the same fear about her own mother since Kalinda, out of all her siblings, was the child they chose to send away with her father to Saint Thomas. Caroline tells her that it would be impossible not to love someone like her. They agree they are now friends, but Caroline lies when Kalinda asks her if she’s still looking for her mother. She decides they’re even now since Kalinda won’t tell her that she can see spirits.
Caroline goes home, and even though she had a wonderful afternoon with Kalinda, she hears whispers in her head and questions if her mother loved her at all. She feels guilty for forgetting about her mother and her thoughts turning to Kalinda instead. She questions whether she truly does deserve to be loved; if she doesn’t, there may be no reason to exist. The woman in black is in the corner of her bedroom, and Caroline asks who she is, but she never responds. The woman in black can’t be her mother because she is far too distant—and with this realization, the woman is gone. Caroline begins thinking that if the woman in black is real, she knows something about her missing mother.
Chapter 6 Summary
Deciding that she must first find the woman in black in order to find her mother, Caroline goes to the school library for research. Caroline is one of the only few who use the library, and she has learned a lot from the books. She learned about infinite parallel universes there and thinks about the different possibilities of how her life could have been. She decides this could be the only universe where she exists.
She finds books on ghosts and spirits and demons: “I learn that the Caribbean is a place where spirits and ghosts exist more than anywhere else in the world” (96). She questions whether the woman in black is real, and maybe she invented her to explain what happened to her mother. This thought infuriates her, and so she continues to read and finds there are ways to communicate with ghosts. She reads a sad story about a father who managed to speak to his dead daughter, and she decides she must do the same.
At home, Caroline locks her door and reads the book’s instructions, but the woman in black doesn’t arrive. Caroline decides she will ask Kalinda to help her find her mother. She goes to Kalinda’s house, and Caroline’s feelings for her have grown. Caroline loves Kalinda’s bedroom, seeing her, her dark skin, her locks. Kalinda tells her to close her eyes, and Caroline feels her place a homemade seashell necklace around her neck. Caroline barely looks at it, Kalinda knowing she isn’t a fan of jewelry, but Caroline immediately tells her she loves it. In her head, she says that she loves Kalinda and that she may never take the necklace off.
A month passes with them spending time together, and they begin to hold hands, but Caroline knows it’s only in the way young girls do. Anise still looks upset by how things have turned out. On her mother’s birthday, Caroline remembers how her mother would also get Caroline a gift because she wanted to celebrate the best thing that’d ever happened to her. Kalinda’s father finished the bed frame, and the girls are sitting on the bed. Caroline confronts Kalinda about being able to see spirits. Kalinda hushes her and says they shouldn’t speak about them because it could summon them. Caroline is relieved to hear she’s not alone, but Kalinda insists they don’t talk about the spirits. Caroline tells her she thinks they have her mother, and she wants her back. Kalinda agrees that this is a good reason to talk about it but that she isn’t sure if the spirits exist because sometimes she isn’t sure if she exists.
Kalinda meets Caroline in the school courtyard, and as she ascends the stairs, a spirit—the white woman in her dressing gown—is following her. Caroline asks Kalinda who she is, and she doesn’t know. Kalinda thinks the spirit has mistaken her for someone else, or that she knows her ancestors, or she will possibly meet her in the future. This confuses Caroline, and Kalinda explains that time is a made-up idea. Caroline says she only wants to know where her mother is, and Kalinda says she is willing to speak about the spirits only in order to help her. Kalinda knows a lot about ghosts, and she lived in a haunted house in Barbados where her mother and seven siblings still live. The ghost in her Barbados house is a little boy who likes to play games. There is also a ghost in the library next to her old school who took no shape at all but was the emotion of fury. One day Kalinda walked through that spot and had never been so angry before.
Caroline tells Kalinda about the woman in black, and Kalinda says it’s possible her mother is in the spirit world, but if so, she is gone forever. Caroline says it wouldn’t matter if she can’t leave the spirit world because she can go there and find her. Kalinda is hurt by this, which makes Caroline feel guilty, but she asks Kalinda how she can get there. Kalinda tells her the solar eclipse is the only way. The next eclipse is in three months and three days, which is an eternity to Caroline.
On her way home, Caroline decides that since Kalinda is helping her find Doreen despite disliking that Caroline wants to go to the spirit world, Caroline should tell her the truth: Caroline loves her. She can’t say it out loud, so she writes her a letter in the purple journal in her bedroom. She writes that she loves her and wishes they could spend their lives together and get married. She wishes she didn’t have to choose between her mother and Kalinda, and she dreads leaving her mother. It will be the second most painful day, besides the day her mother disappeared. Caroline wraps the journal in white wrapping paper with gold trim the way her mother taught her. The next morning, she places the journal in Kalinda’s desk and waits. Kalinda enters the classroom and tells Caroline that her aunt went outside to yell at the accordion player the night before but tripped over Kalinda sleeping on the ground, and now her father and aunt are furious with her.
Caroline has a hard time focusing on anything besides the wrapped journal in Kalinda’s desk. She hurries to follow Kalinda to recess in the courtyard, and when they go back inside, Anise is holding the journal and reading it out loud. Everyone is laughing, and Kalinda asks her what is wrong. Caroline tells her they must find her mother right away and tries to get Kalinda out of the classroom, but Anise closes the journal and tells Caroline to step away from Kalinda. Kalinda reads the journal, looks up at Caroline, and then walks out of the room. Everyone surrounds Caroline and taunts her before shoving her and knocking her to the floor where they drag her by her hair. She lets them, as she feels nothing matters anymore.
Chapter 7 Summary
Kalinda doesn’t look at Caroline for the rest of the day, and she leaves as soon as the school day is over. Anise continues to taunt Caroline, and the Woman in Black appears, but Caroline doesn’t look at her. Caroline stays in bed the whole next day, and when the sun comes up again she walks down the road and finds Bernadette. Caroline throws a rock at her but misses, and Bernadette tells her they are sisters. Caroline calls Bernadette’s mother a liar, and Bernadette starts screaming, tears and snot running down her face. Caroline runs back home and sits in the dark until her father walks in. He says he covered for her at school and told Miss Joe she was sick.
Caroline tells her dad that Bernadette says they are sisters, and he says it’s true. Caroline feels enraged, and her father cries. She asks him if that’s why her mother left, and he tells her that she’s on Saint Thomas, which sends Caroline’s thoughts spiraling. She willingly goes to school the next morning to get out of the house, and Anise and her friends yell that she shouldn’t be allowed at a Catholic school. Caroline pays them no mind. She stares blankly and watches the little dead girl who looks like her sister standing in the courtyard.
Kalinda enters the classroom and doesn’t look at Caroline. Caroline says good morning and tells Kalinda that her mother is on the island. This piques Kalinda’s interest, and she tells Caroline they will speak after school. Later, they walk through town, and Kalinda tells Caroline she will help her find her mother, but Kalinda isn’t sure if she can be Caroline’s friend. Caroline tries to say the letter was a joke, but Kalinda knows better. Kalinda says she’s been told that it’s wrong to have those feelings for another girl, but Caroline says that she doesn’t believe that because they should decide for themselves. Kalinda says she wishes she could be that way, and she asks Caroline how she plans to find her mother. Caroline isn’t sure, but she’s afraid that Kalinda will walk away if she knows this. She quickly tells her that she needs evidence that her mother is alive; she wants to spy on Miss Joe, and Kalinda agrees to help.
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
Caroline’s inquisitive nature shifts to focusing on Kalinda when they both see the ghost of the white woman in a nightgown. Caroline takes a risk by asking Kalinda to have lunch with her, but she is motivated by her curiosity: She must know if Kalinda can also see spirits, as this would allow Caroline to feel seen for once. Caroline grapples with her growing attraction for Kalinda as they hold hands, and there emerges the theme of friendship versus romantic interest. Caroline reserves her feelings and is afraid of scaring Kalinda away. Her inner conflict escalates when the girls witness two older women holding hands and showing affection for one another. Caroline, despite not truly believing it is disgusting as Kalinda says, goes along with it because she’s afraid of possible consequences. As Caroline fights against her true self, this internal struggle begins to haunt her.
After Caroline spends the afternoon with Kalinda, the woman in black appears, and this parallels the guilt Caroline is feeling. Caroline feels bad for enjoying Kalinda’s friendship because the relationship distracts her from finding her mother. Caroline decides that if she can forget about her mother so easily, maybe she doesn’t deserve to be loved: “and if I don’t deserve to be loved, then perhaps I don’t deserve to be alive” (90). The theme of questioning self-worth coincides with the arrival of the woman in black. Caroline doesn’t think adults expect a 12-year-old to question whether she should be alive—and this is dramatic irony. Miss Joe recognizes Caroline’s struggle with self-worth, and this is why Miss Joe gave Caroline the books that saved her life.
The motifs of infinite universes and ghosts occur in Chapter 6 when Caroline is in the library researching everything she can about the woman in black. The idea of infinite universes allows Caroline to reflect on what her life could possibly be like on a different Water Island or in a different place entirely, like Paris. She mentions that perhaps in another universe, she is popular like Anise or loves a boy like the rest of the girls do at school. She concludes that if there is a universe where her parents never met, then she doesn’t exist there, and maybe this is the only universe where she is. With this speculation, Caroline is beginning to understand her value. She recognizes that she does exist in this universe, and even though she isn’t like the other girls, she still has a purpose in life—and right now that purpose is to find her mother.
Caroline’s feelings for Kalinda have grown immensely, and she can’t stop staring at or thinking about her. After realizing she loves Kalinda when Kalinda gives her the seashell necklace, Caroline acknowledges that she is too afraid to openly express her feelings. She is also working up the courage to ask if Kalinda can see spirits too, but now Kalinda lets her hold her hand, and even though it isn’t the way Caroline wishes it was, she values the friendship. The theme of feeling stuck between childhood and adulthood appears here: Caroline explains that holding hands as friends is something babies do, and they should not be holding hands as friends, but they do anyway.
Kalinda is extraordinary not only because she befriends Caroline to begin with (she sets herself apart from the entire school in doing so), but because she shares Caroline’s ability to see spirits. Both Kalinda’s friendship and her shared supernatural ability are life-changing for Caroline, who finally feels less alienated. When Caroline mentions leaving for the spirit world and never returning, the fact that Kalinda is so hurt by this idea shows that Kalinda truly cares about Caroline.
As Caroline finds the courage to write the love letter to Kalinda, it marks a major turning point. When the plan backfires and Anise finds the letter, the woman in black returns, and the school bullies tell Caroline she shouldn’t be alive. She is “starting to think that they might be right” (127). The theme of questioning her self-worth co-occurs again with the woman in black: The spirit haunting her represents Caroline’s feelings of isolation and shame when she lets her thoughts spiral downwards.
The novel’s pace picks up when Caroline finally confronts her father about Bernadette, and she finds out it is true and that her mother is “here” (131). After the rock-throwing incident with Bernadette, there is a little dead girl who looks like her standing in the courtyard at school. It is unclear if this spirit is the same girl Caroline saw who burst into moths, but the image of a little girl ghost becomes a motif as Caroline grapples with her family issues.
There is a moment of growth for Caroline when she is forced to explain herself to Kalinda about her feelings for her. Despite Kalinda saying it is wrong and that she isn’t sure if they can be friends anymore, Caroline remains calm and states that she believes they should think for themselves and “decide if something is wrong just because someone says it’s so, or decide it’s right because that’s how we feel” (135). Caroline doesn’t let her emotions get the best of her. She is honest with herself and Kalinda, and she keeps her focus on creating a plan to find her mother on the island. This moment demonstrates Caroline’s growth; she now remains true to herself, in contrast to when she went along with Kalinda’s earlier degrading remarks toward the women holding hands.
