Skellig: Chapter 33 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Michael goes to school. In Science, Michael asks Rasputin if there are people like the archaeopteryx who are learning to fly; he says human bones would need to become pneumatized first. Rasputin jokes that wings would help too. Coot taunts Michael about the “monkey girl.” Rasputin shows a diagram of the human organ system and has the class feel their heartbeats. Michael can feel the baby’s heartbeat within his own. When Rasputin asks what would happen if the heart stopped, the class all mime being dead. Leaky meets Michael’s eyes, and Michael can tell he wants to be friends again.

At recess, Michael impresses his friends in a football game. After recess, Michael’s English teacher tears up while reading a story Michael wrote in which a boy and girl find and take care of a dirty vagrant with wings who later teaches them how to fly. Then, Michael is called to the office because Dad is on the phone. Dad says that he has to go to the hospital and that Michael is to go to Mina’s after school. When Michael asks if the baby is okay, Dad says they don’t need to worry until tomorrow; he says that Michael is brave. Michael does not feel brave and wishes he had stayed home to think about the baby.