90 pages • 3 hours read
Priscilla CummingsRed Kayak
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 22–24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
Carl picks Brady up for a movie night. At the video store, they run into J.T., who seems anxious and upset; he tells them that his father is still stick, and that he's unable to donate a kidney because of his age. Brady takes pity on him and tries to discreetly let him know that he's disposed of the drill.WhileCarl and Brady watch Blade Runner, however, Brady finds himself feeling uncomfortable: "It did bother me, though, how those futuristic replicants with their limited, four-year life spans, desperately wanted to live longer. The whole movie was about getting 'more life,'and it got to me after a while" (158).
As Carl takes Brady home, they talk about the upcoming watermen's protest. Carl isn't sure whether Brady's father should go, since things might "get nasty," but acknowledges that"It’s a tough issue. The new regulations are hitting those guys hard. Crabbing’s their livelihood…they don’t know anything else" (159). When he drops Brady off, he reiterates that Mr. Parks should be careful.
Brady goes out into the butterfly garden; he's worried about the protest and his family's financial future, as well as J.T.'s father and the DiAngelos. He thinks again that he might have made the wrong decision about the drill, and wonders in what way the butterfly garden is supposed to symbolize hope: "But did [Mom] mean hope for us? For her and Dad and me? Or hope for Amanda? Did she think Amanda’s soul could live on somehow? And if Mom believed that, then what about other kids who died? Like Ben. Could the little butterfly, asleep in our locust tree, drying his wings off on our rock in the morning, symbolize hope for Ben, too?" (161).
Brady stops by his father's workshop, and asks whether he'll be taking part in the protest. His father says no, and Brady wonders why, given the pressure he's under from his fellow fishermen. His father says that while he understands the crabbers' frustrations, overfishing the bay would be wrong; he won't take part in the protest, and he'll reduce the amount of crabbing he personally does.
Brady thinks about the DiAngelos' need for closure, and the importance of taking responsibility for his own actions. He admits to himself that he's "known [the right thing to do] all along," and he asks his father for a favor—to help him pull the red kayak from the river (164).
Chapter 23 Summary
The next morning, Brady and his father go out on the Corsica to recover the kayak.It's raining, but Brady is determined: "Finding the kayak and getting the truth out once and for all was my mission. It didn’t matter what kids at school thought or what happened afterward. It was something I had to do" (167). Unfortunately, when they first reach the place where Brady had foundthe kayak, they don't see anything. As the weather worsens, Brady's father suggests turning back, but Brady pleads with him to keep searching.
When Brady mentions that he and his friends used to go swimming at this spot, it occurs to his father that the area might be a "littoral drift"—a circular current cut off from the main flow of the river. He speculates that the kayak might have sunk down into a kind of whirlpool. Together, they lower a hook over the side of the boat and begin hauling. Their first attempt brings up an old barbecue, but they manage to pull the kayak in on their second try. As they catch their breaths, the rain reveals the holes in its hull: "In slow motion, right before our eyes, little rivulets of rainwater pushed aside the slime until we could see, my dad and I, how three holes had been drilled into the bottom" (172).
With a "pained expression," Brady's father asks him about the holes (172). In response, Brady tells him "everything" (172).
Chapter 24 Summary
Brady finishes his story. His fathersays little in response except that they need to contact the police, and Brady worries that his father will never see him the same way again.They return home and repeat the story first to Brady's mother and then to Carl, who tells them not to go to the police until they've spoken to a lawyer. Brady's father asks how much that will cost, and Brady feels guilty for causing his parents financial worries.
Later that day, Brady and his parents go to meet with the lawyer, L. Mitchell Anderson. Brady recounts the story again, admitting to coming up with the idea originally and throwing away the drill. Mr. Anderson sets their minds at ease on these two scores, saying that the drill couldn't have been used as evidence anyway, and that suggesting drilling holes in the kayak isn't a crime in and of itself. However, he suggests going to the state attorney with Brady's story in exchange for immunity. Brady is still worried about what will happen to his friends, and Mr. Anderson explains that a judge will decide whether or not to convict. If they're found guilty of manslaughter or second-degree murder, Digger and J.T. will likely go to a juvenile facility—possibly until they're 21.
Brady tells his story again at the police station, and signs his written statement: "Braden Duvall Parks, I wrote, feeling every loop and turn of the letters, and wishing, somehow, that I could detach myself from my name" (179). Mr. Anderson warns them that there will likely be a lot of media coverage of the case, and tells Brady what will happen next: a trial date will be set, and Brady will need to testify. Brady is overwhelmed, and grows even more upset when he thinks about the police explaining the situation to the DiAngelos: "Poor Mrs. DiAngelo, I thought. She would have to relive it all over again. Only now she would know that I was behind it. That my very own friends sank the kayak and killed Ben. Maybe she would even think I was a murderer!" (180). As the family gets ready to leave, however, Brady's father reassures him that he's done the right thing.
Chapters 22–24 Analysis
Far from putting the past to rest, disposing of the drill makes Brady more aware of the past than ever; even a movie night with Carl becomes a painful reminder of Ben's death. The outside world seems similarly stuck in a rut, as Brady notes later, in Chapter 22: "What if Mrs. DiAngelo never got over losing Ben? And what if Mr. DiAngelo never stopped blaming his wife for Ben’s death? And how were J.T. and Digger and I going to live our whole lives keeping all this a secret?" (160).It is now more clear than ever that "moving forward," as Brady puts it, will involve acknowledging the truth about what's happened (160).
Brady's decision to come clean about what he knows follows a heartfelt conversation with his father, in which Mr. Parks explains his reasons for not taking part in the watermen's strike. Deep down, Mr. Parks says, he's always known that "crabbin’ [the] waters till they ain’t nothin’ left” would be wrong; the fact that standing in solidarity with his fellow workers would undoubtedly be "easier" does not change the basic morality of the situation (163). The similarities to his own situation are not lost on Brady, who finally realizes that the only real path forward is to reveal what he knows.
Throughout this scene, the conversation centers on a central image of "reach[ing] deep inside" to do the right thing—an image that not only prefigures Brady and his father literally dredging up the kayak from the river bed, but also mirrors the novel's broader, symbolic use of the Corsica as a metaphor for truths buried beneath the surface (163). Similarly, Cummings uses the weather throughout this section to highlight significant narrative and thematic developments. The heat spell that greeted Brady on his return from Rhode Island finally breaks on the morning he and his father go searching for the kayak. After the long drought, rain comes as a welcome relief, as well as a symbol of cleansing and renewal; the rain washes away the dirt covering the holes in the kayak, revealing the truth about the accident as it waters the ground and makes new life possible.
