Boy Swallows Universe: Boy Steals Ocean Summary & Analysis

It’s the winter of 1987, and Eli is studying memorial plaques in the graveyard. Now, Eli knows that Slim was right: “It’s all just time.” Eli is getting better at manipulating time, just like Slim taught him to do. Slim just died at age 77, after battling cancer for the last six months. During Slim’s funeral service, Eli holds tight to the note that Slim gave him on the bridge, which reads “Do your time, before it does you.”

When the service is over, an old man approaches Eli and August. They discuss Slim—both Eli and the man say Slim was their best friend. When Eli asks if the man thinks Slim killed the cab driver, the man says he never asked. He says he respected Slim too much to ask, and if Slim did it, he certainly rehabilitated himself. Eli likes this answer and watches the man walk away. Then, he turns to August and says he needs to get a job—they’ll need to have a place ready for Mum to live when she gets out.

Six months ago, when Eli fell off the wall in the Boggo Road prison, he landed in the guards’ arms. They were, fortunately, more concerned for his mental health than they were angry. The guards decided they’d say nothing, and one guard drove Eli home. Once Eli got in the house, he opened his gift from Dad. It wasn’t a book; it was a ream of paper to use to write on—or burn the house down. On a piece of that paper, Eli wrote a list of possible occupations that would allow him to put a down payment on a house in The Gap. He listed things like chip fryer, shelf stacker, paperboy—and drug dealer.

Back at Dad’s house in the present, someone knocks on the door. This never happens. August opens the door for Mrs. Birkbeck, who asks for Dad. Eli refuses to fetch him at first but finally does. He tells Dad Mrs. Birkbeck means well, so Dad comes to the door and tells her that the boys have told him she’s giving them “wonderful guidance.” Annoyed, Eli watches as Dad—who is constantly drunk, panicky, and never leaves the house—somehow manages to be complimentary and even flirty. He explains that the boys were at a funeral today, which is why they weren’t in school.

Mrs. Birkbeck asks to come in, and Dad sends Eli and August outside. They crawl under the house so they can listen in. Above them, Mrs. Birkbeck is saying that August is an exceptional artist, but both boys “trouble” her. She shows Dad multiple paintings August did of the car underwater and says he refuses to paint anything else. Then, Mrs. Birkbeck says she’s concerned that August might hurt himself. She says Eli called the scene “the moon pool,” and August shoots an angry glance at Eli. She suggests the boys might be suffering from PTSD, and she’s considering calling the Department of Child Safety. August shoots another scathing look at Eli for talking honesty with Mrs. Birkbeck. Above, Dad is losing his patience.

Mrs. Birkbeck asks Dad if August and Eli have ever exhibited suicidal behaviors. The boys laugh silently as above them, Mrs. Birkbeck says that Eli has told her that August is painting Eli’s dream. Eli, she says, can recall all sorts of things about his dream, like smells, violence, and sounds. But she’s told Eli he must call the dreams what they are: memories. Mrs. Birkbeck says that according to Eli, Dad drove his sons into the moon pool days before Mum left him. Dad bursts out that the boys won’t heal if “bleeding hearts” like Mrs. Birkbeck won’t let this stuff go.

Hearing Mrs. Birkbeck describe the memory in this way makes it feel different. As Mrs. Birkbeck and Dad talk about Dad’s panic attack and Eli thinking Dad drove them into the pool on purpose, Eli remembers. He and August were playing in the backseat, and he remembers the car bouncing on gravel. Dad hisses that Mrs. Birkbeck must love how much power she has—she can take his sons away. But she’ll regret it if she does, because the boys will burn her house down someday. Eli closes his eyes and sees the car hitting the edge of a dam and taking off.

Mrs. Birkbeck asks a few more questions and then slowly, haltingly, Dad says they were going camping. He and Mum were having some trouble; she’d run away. He shouldn’t have been driving. He started shaking and lost control. It was lucky that Eli and August had their windows down. A nearby farmer helped Dad pull the boys out of the car, and at first, they weren’t breathing. Then, suddenly, they were both alive. When Mrs. Birkbeck asks Dad his opinion on that seemingly magical event, Dad says he doesn’t think about it. He had a panic attack, and he’s been regretting his actions ever since.

Changing tack, Mrs. Birkbeck says she believes August is still thinking about it. Dad insists August is a smart kid who just doesn’t like talking, but Mrs. Birkbeck says that according to Eli, August doesn’t speak so that his “secret” doesn’t come out. The secret, she says, is that August is convinced he died in the moon pool and came back—and has come back many times. Eli, she says, believes there are other Augusts out there, in places at the other end of a red telephone. Dad has never heard of the telephone and is getting frustrated. Then, suddenly, he breaks out laughing.

Mrs. Birkbeck insists this isn’t funny—the boys have suffered major trauma, and perhaps these beliefs help them process. Or maybe they do hear things, and talking about the red telephone is the only way they can make sense of it. But no matter the truth, she says, she believes August’s thoughts are dangerous. Dad says this is nonsense. August is being a normal big brother and telling his little brother lies, and Eli is a born storyteller who’s using these stories to get attention. At this, August crawls out from under the house. Eli follows August to one of Dad’s dead washing machines in the yard—which August opens to reveal Lyle’s heroin stash. Then, walking back into the house, August tells Mrs. Birkbeck that he isn’t going to kill himself, and that he and Eli love Dad more than Dad loves them.