The Eyes and the Impossible

While Johannes is lying low, he still has his daily meetings with the Assistant Eyes, but Bertrand delivers reports to the bison in his stead. Sonja is her usual shy self, but Angus surprises the dog by arriving promptly. The raccoon explains that he has a clock now. Bertrand arrives late and in great excitement. He tells his friends, “There’s a bunch of weird animals near the windmill. They’re unlike anything I’ve ever seen” (133). The seagull urges them all to hurry to the scene and reassures Johannes that no one will notice him in the hubbub.

The windmill was once surrounded by fields of tulips “that bloomed like a million tiny sunrises” (135), but the flowers were eventually choked by spiky weeds. To the astonishment of Johannes and his friends, legions of mysterious creatures gobble up the weeds. The animals look like small horses and have curved horns. The friends are curious about the newcomers, but they worry that the voracious animals may try to eat them. Bertrand bravely volunteers to speak to a pair of the creatures. They explain that the park is on an island and that they come from the mainland.

A human calls the strange animals away, and Bertrand returns to his friends. They’re all astonished at the news that they are on an island and decide that Johannes should inform the bison at once. They agree that he cannot appear before the park’s leaders in the ludicrous pink dog sweater. Sonja unravels the sweater and blushes when Johannes thanks her.

Johannes carefully enters the bison’s pen and snuggles against Freya. She, Meredith, and Samuel have all missed the dog. They praise his courage in rescuing the human child and affirm that he was “born to be the Eyes” (144). Although the Assistant Eyes are trying their best, they are less suited to the task and have struggled in his absence. Johannes describes the new animals to the bison, who explain that he is describing goats. The dog also reports what the goats said about the mainland. Freya sadly explains that the bison were born on the mainland and adds, “Here is home. And there’s no way to leave” (145).

Johannes is stunned silent as the bison explain to him that the world contains many mainlands and islands. The dog wishes to stay with the bison and “bask in their warmth and wisdom” (147), but he has to sneak away when one of their keepers approaches. Johannes doesn’t want to go home and be alone with his thoughts, so he wanders to the edge of the park. He looks at the humans’ houses and wonders why they choose to live on the island. Then he runs to the ocean and rages that the bison kept from him the truth that they are on “some tiny insignificant island far away from anything that matter[s]” (148).

The next day, Johannes sees signs with pictures of a dog that looks like him. Yolanda explains that the signs say there is a coyote in the park. Johannes has heard that coyotes are “many and troublesome and even dangerous” (152), and he had thought that humans drove them away long ago. Even though he fears damaging his credibility as the Eyes, Johannes admits that he hasn’t seen any coyotes.

Johannes returns to the windmill and meets a cheerful goat named Helene who has been ostracized by the rest of the herd because of the disorderly cross-lines on her horns. When Johannes returns to his lair, he discovers that the Parks People have filled in the entrance of his home with cement. The deliberation and cruelty of it wound him: “They must know that animals live in hollows! And still they made my home into a wall. Why?” (161).

Johannes spends the night in Sonja’s dugout, and he’s comforted when the squirrel shares his righteous anger and calls the Parks People’s action “[n]asty and brutish” (162). The next morning, he gets up early and runs to the ocean to clear his head before paying a visit to Helene. The goat listens sympathetically as Johannes explains what happened to his lair. She doesn’t have a home because her herd is constantly traveling. She mentions that she once saw many bison in a plain surrounded by snowy mountains. Johannes has never seen snow or mountains, and Helene explains them in language he can understand.

During the next 12 days, Johannes exchanges stories with Helene after he makes his report to the bison. He also sleeps beside the goat. When Johannes invites Bertrand to join their conversation, the gull pretends not to hear him, which is unlike him. One day, Johannes mentions that he believes the sun is God, and Helene contends that this may or may not be the case. Although the dog is hurt that Helene questions his beliefs, he affirms that he is her friend when two goats call her names. The bullies behave subserviently to Johannes when they see that he is a dog. He uses this power for good by ordering, “Henceforth, among your kind, there will be no differentiation based on tiny deviations of physical form” (172).

Helene is so grateful to Johannes for standing up for her to the other goats that she spends half the night thinking of ways to repay him. The next morning, she suggests that they sneak the bison onto the ship with the goats when the herd returns to the mainland: “There’s a billion miles where they can run and graze and sleep–and even hide, if they need to” (175). Johannes supports the plan immediately, but he says that they will need 100 years to finetune the details, such as how the bison will evade detection. Helene informs him that the ship will leave the next morning at 7:08 am.

Johannes runs faster than he has ever run before. In part, he hastens because he’s devastated by the thought of Helene’s departure and can’t bear to look at her. The dog gathers the Assistant Eyes and explains that Helene’s plan represents their best chance to liberate the bison, allowing them to be “not just free to run on the beach for a moment, but free forever” (178). Sonja is the first to endorse the plan, and this helps convince Yolanda and Angus as well. Johannes tries to talk to the bison, but he’s unable to approach them because they’re surrounded by humans with “[p]oles, ropes, little silver discs and little black boxes” (179). Johannes and the Assistant Eyes enlist the aid of the park’s raccoons, pelicans, gulls, rats, crows, and horses. Only the ducks refuse to help. When Johannes starts to feel overwhelmed, Sonja confidently assures him that they are making good progress toward their goal. The squirrel suggests that he should become the Keeper of the Equilibrium after the bison are gone. Johannes is surprised by the idea and wonders if he could take on this role when he still looks to Bertrand for wisdom and guidance.

That evening, Johannes returns to the goats. With Helene’s help, he musters the herd with a mighty bark and explains their part of the plan, which entails “leaping and baying and generally making chaos all around” the bison (187). The humans don’t leave the bison alone until late in the evening. By the time Johannes is able to speak with them, they have already heard of the plan to liberate them. The bison are eager to leave after a day of being poked and prodded by people from a university. Freya asks Johannes to become the Keeper of the Equilibrium. He accepts even though he fears that there is still much he doesn’t know. The bison explain that Johannes’s father was the last coyote on the island, which is why he runs so swiftly and laughs. They intended to keep this painful truth from him, but they think he must know that the humans who are searching for a coyote are after him.