The Bone Sparrow: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

When Subhi wakes up in the morning, he thinks that the girl from Outside must’ve been a dream. But outside, he finds her ball of snot and her handprint in the dirt. Subhi puts his hand in her print; they match almost perfectly. He then lies down next to the prints and lets the earth pull him in until Queeny kicks him to get breakfast. Later, when Harvey checks people in line and asks why there’s dirt on Subhi’s face, Subhi says he was listening for the earth’s stories. Queeny quips that Subhi’s brain has “melted,” but Harvey gets down and tells Subhi that it’s not silly—there are seven types of dirt. Subhi can tell Harvey’s actually talking to Queeny when he says this. But Queeny asks what dirt turns into a sea at night, and the duck scoffs that Queeny doesn’t even know he talks. Subhi laughs.

Subhi is so busy thinking about the girl that he doesn’t understand why Eli is so mad when Eli runs up. Queeny tells Eli to calm down, and Harvey asks what happened. Eli says that Beaver threw Subhi against a wall, and he shoves Subhi’s head down so Harvey can see the bloody lump. Eli angrily says that Harvey doesn’t care. Harvey looks angry and walks away, while Queeny tells Subhi to clean up the cut so he doesn’t die from the germs in his blood. The Shakespeare duck shares that he could see the germs last night but didn’t want to scare Subhi—and Subhi feels a little bit afraid when Eli, in a concerned tone, asks if Maá has seen the cut.

Eli apologizes for letting Subhi run when Beaver was working, and he then pulls out three muesli bars from his pocket. He has boxes of them—the Jackets were going to send them back because the wrappers say “Freedom Bars.” Queeny, Eli, and Subhi head for the tent to eat the bars—but when they arrive, there’s a Jacket there who’s clearly looking for someone. Eli’s paper has likely come through: he used to be here with his cousins and uncle, but then they found their maá. They were going somewhere cold, where there’s hot chocolate, and they promised Eli would join them when they got the paperwork sorted out. They were so happy when they left, and Eli told Subhi that one day the two of them would be hot chocolate chefs.

The Jacket, though, says Eli is moving to Alpha, where the single men live. Queeny argues that Eli isn’t old enough. However, there was once a nine-year-old boy whose paperwork said he was 19. They moved him to Alpha, and when he moved back to Family, he “tried to bleed himself out on the fence.” The men in Alpha can be really mean—something happens to them in there that changes them. Eli shrugs at Subhi and says kids should run things. When the Jacket grabs Eli’s shirt, Subhi starts talking to try to diffuse the tension. Finally, the Jacket throws Eli down and gives Eli five minutes to collect his things, referring to Eli by his ID number and threatening to send Eli to Beta if he protests. Eli says things to make Subhi and Queeny laugh until the Jacket returns to march him away.

Subhi gives Eli one of his treasures, a rock from space, so Eli can make a wish on it. Subhi tried to wish on the rock, but Ba isn’t here yet. Maybe it’ll work better for Eli. Later, Subhi realizes he never told Eli about the girl. Subhi tries to draw the girl and thinks about Ba so he doesn’t think about Eli all alone in Alpha.