The Eyes and the Impossible

Astonished, Johannes discovers that his friend is alive. Bertrand explains that he was wounded that afternoon and has been lying there ever since because the arrow in his left wing prevents him from walking. Tearfully, the gull says, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m so embarrassed. Oh, what stupidity!” (199). Angus and Sonja help Johannes extract the arrow, and the squirrel hides it in a thicket where they will never see it again. Bertrand apologizes to his friends, who reassure him that he’ll live although they know he “would never fly the same again” (200).

Johannes, Sonja, and Angus take Bertrand back to his nest and tend to his wound. After the other Assistant Eyes leave, the gull explains that he was jealous of Helene and wanted to impress Johannes. The dog assures him that he is his “greatest friend” and “a paragon of valor” (202). Bertrand calls himself selfish and useless, and Johannes worries how these dark thoughts may grow stronger when the gull misses “this most heroic mission” (203). He nuzzles his friend and then hurries to implement the plan to free the bison.

Johannes and Sonja are in charge of reconnaissance at the bison pen, where they see four humans from the university in addition to two Parks People. At Johannes’s signal, Yolanda screeches to mark the start of the Bison Freedom Gambit. Angus and the other raccoons attack the university people’s vehicle, triggering its alarm. While the Parks People and university people try in vain to shoo away the raccoons, rats chew through wires to shut off the lights around the enclosure. One of the Parks People calls Animal Control to explain the situation and, catching a glimpse of Johannes, adds that a coyote has been spotted. Angus bites a human to ensure that all of the people’s attention is directed at the raccoons. Then Sonja unlatches the gate to the bison’s pen. The sight of Freya, Meredith, and Samuel leaving their enclosure fills the dog with indescribable joy. While Sonja leads the bison into the woods, Johannes guides three large horses into the pen to serve as stand-ins for the freed animals. Johannes reconvenes with the others in the woods and takes over leading the bison so that Sonja can act as a lookout. Freya confesses that she feels “far more nervous than [she] expected to be” (212), and the dog shares the sentiment because their scheme seems hasty and outlandish even to him.

Johannes guides the bison to the windmill, where they meet Helene. She exchanges introductions with Freya, Meredith, and Samuel, and Johannes’s heart aches at the thought of being separated from his kind friend. The contrast between the goat’s small stature and the bison’s enormous size fills the goats with disbelief and Freya with sadness. Johannes encourages Helene, and she stirs the animals’ spirits with a bold speech: “Today we do something new, something important, and something very risky [...] It will take total commitment, total belief” (217). At Helene’s command, a group of goats rushes toward the ship so the goatherd has to chase them. The remaining 100 goats are responsible for the crux of the plan, concealing the bison by “jumping and swirling, baying and zigzagging” (218). The herd moves onto the beach with the three bison in the middle and Johannes circling the perimeter. Yolanda reports that a group of humans with nets and guns scared away the raccoons, that the spooked horses jumped out of the enclosure and are now loose in the park, and that they need to hurry and get the bison onto the ship before the humans realize what’s happened.

Johannes races ahead and climbs a boulder. He gazes upon the ship but refuses to let its beauty mesmerize him. As the sun starts to rise, he signals the start of the plan’s final stage with his loudest howls: “Ha ha hooooo!” (226). Yolanda and an enormous gathering of pelicans, gulls, hummingbirds, herons, and other birds distract the humans on the vessel and direct their attention away from the boarding ramp. Johannes laughs with joy to see how well the plan is working. Even he cannot spot the bison amidst the goats’ chaotic cavorting as the herd makes its final approach. Freya, Meredith, and Samuel are exhausted by their trek. They thank Johannes and the goats for their first sight of the sea’s beauty and then explain that they won’t board the ship: “We’ve been in the park all our lives, and what remains of our lives is finite. We don’t want to die in some unknown place, so far from home” (233). Dumbfounded, Johannes wonders what awaits him and the bison back in the park, especially now that the escape attempt has brought even more attention from the Control-the-Animals people. Helene invites him to come with her to the mainland.

Johannes was already considering the possibility that he could go with the goats, and his desire to do so increases when Helene explains that the mainland has countless coyotes, free dogs, and rectangles full of real and imagined wonders. She adds, “And if you are truly the Eyes, truly alive to see and run, I think you should come” (238). Johannes decides that he will go, but he wants to see Bertrand first.

Helene understands that Johannes needs to see his best friend, but she tells him that he needs to be back in a few minutes. When he returns to the park, a despondent Angus informs him that Bertrand is performing the coda. Johannes embraces his coyote blood because it gives him his extraordinary speed, and he prays to the sun as he races back to the beach. He returns to the hill where Helene and the rest of his friends are gathered and shouts up at the gull. Yolanda tells him, “You know this is their idea of honor. We can’t change it” (241). Still, Johannes continues to call out Bertrand’s name and yells, “There is more!” (242).

Bertrand spreads his wings and stops his descent right before he hits the water. The gull flies over to Johannes and tries to act casual as he inquires what the dog wants. Johannes tells him, “You have more to see and do,” and asks him to come to the mainland with him (244). Bertrand weighs the idea and lets his friend carry him on his back. The goats easily conceal the dog and the bird as they make their way to the ship. Bertrand wonders if they will ever return to the island, and Helene points out that it’s possible since the herd came there once. A weeping but smiling Sonja waves goodbye to Johannes, and he feels “happier for her than [he’d] ever felt for [him]self” when he realizes that she will become the Eyes (246). Johannes, Bertrand, and Helene board the ship.

Johannes and Bertrand get some much-needed sleep and then awaken and smile at one another. The gull is in disbelief that he’s alive and that they’ve both left the only home they’ve ever known. Johannes thinks of “all [he] loved in the home [they’ve] left” (248), such as his friends, the flowers, and the children. For a moment, he wants to leap overboard and swim back to the island. Then he reminds himself, “Heroes go forth. To be alive is to go forth. So we went forth” (249).