The Stranger in the Lifeboat

Sea

Benji writes in his diary one final time, speaking to Annabelle about how he has finally come to terms with the prospect of death: “It’s been months since I wrote you anything. I am still at sea, but no longer at war with it. I may live. I may die. It doesn’t matter. A shroud has been lifted” (236). He tells of how he has despaired of any rescue, but that this despair has allowed him to truly face death and come to understand that he has already met the Lord.

In these last days he spends time talking to Alice, who explains to him many things about their final weeks after the sinking of the ship. Alice explains that the man who had called himself the Lord before was actually an angel speaking in her name. Finally, Benjamin gets up the courage to ask the question that he has been longing to ask the whole time: “Why did my wife have to die?” (241). Alice explains that he is asking the wrong question, that instead he needs to see his time with his wife as a gift.

Land

LeFleur slowly comes to realize that Dobby is very likely not a threat but tells him that he will have to hold him in custody until he can confirm Dobby’s story. Dobby says that he understands, but he wants to know what happened to the drifter who found the boat to begin with. LeFleur relates that he has no idea where he is, just that his name is Rom Rosh.

LeFleur returns to his office and looks in his desk for a bottle of rum. In a drawer, however, he finds an envelope that he realizes has been left by Rom Rosh on the day he disappeared. In the envelope he discovers a few missing pages from the diary. After reading the final pages of the diary—where Benji is able to speak with Alice—LeFleur drives home and embraces his wife, finally coming to terms with the death of his daughter. Finally, LeFleur can feel at peace.

News

After a long search, the scavenger team locates the sunken vessel of the Galaxy, and they discover the reason for the disaster. In the hull of the ship are three large holes.

Sea

Writing his last words, Benji tells Annabelle that she is constantly on his mind, and that he realizes now that he can speak with her simply in his own mind rather than needing to write his speech out on paper. After speaking with Alice, they drift into a rainstorm where he can collect a large cache of fresh water. This new refreshment gives him the strength of body and clarity of mind to fashion a means to catch fish, and he begins to revive after fresh water and food.

One morning Alice surprises Benji and hands him an explosive mine, telling him to roll overboard and into the water: “Something liberating. After all that had happened, and everything I had done, I accepted this as a just ending, because I accepted the world as a just place” (251). At that moment Benji realizes that he truly believes, and right at that moment he realizes that his hands are empty; the mine has disappeared, and he drifts to the surface.

Bobbing to the surface he hears Alice call out to him and realizes it is the same voice he heard the first night calling to him from the lifeboat: “‘It was you in the raft…that night…you saved me…’ ‘Yes.’ I fell to my knees and confessed everything” (252). Benji admits that he has been living with anger and a desire for vengeance, but now that has all disappeared. At the same time, he admits that he never detonated the mine, that he had not gone through with his revenge.

Finally, he can admit the truth of what happened the night of the wreck: He had stood on the edge of the ship’s railing and jumped off. Alice reveals that she knows everything already and tells Benji what happened that night, that the yacht had been rammed by a pod of whales. In her last words, Alice tells Benji to use his newfound freedom and grace to go and do likewise when he survives his voyage. Saying this, she walks to the edge of the boat and jumps overboard. Immediately looking into the water where she had jumped in, Benji realizes that she is not there.

News

The latest findings in the search for the Galaxy have finally revealed that the hull suffered catastrophic damage, causing it to sink, and that the best theory thus far proposed by scientists was that the boat had struck a whale. Taking the circumstances into account, scientists postulated that the loud noise (which could have agitated the whales) in combination with the color of the hull, which had been painted red, known to attract whales, a whale attack was not an unlikely event (all things considered). Although the remains of the ship were found, no news has appeared as to the possibility of any survivors.

Land

Dobby and LeFleur have arrived at the airport, and LeFleur hands Dobby the notebook, telling him that since he is family he should have it. Before he leaves, Dobby tells LeFleur that he thinks the name of the lost stranger was actually Rum Rosh, which is a Hebrew phrase that means “God lifted my head,” something he had been taught as a child at church.

Driving back after Dobby leaves, LeFleur has a sudden intuition to drive back to the beach where the boat had been found. Arriving at the beach, he sees the stranger there sitting on the beach. Approaching the man, LeFleur asks if he knew the diary had been there. The man admits that he had, and that he had hoped it would be helpful to the inspector. LeFleur then reveals that he knows who he truly is: “‘How did you do it, Benji? How did you survive all that way alone?’ ‘I was never alone,’ the man said” (266).

Months later things are restful, the reporters have all left and the island is quiet once again. Eventually, Dobby returns and is reunited with his cousin while LeFleur and Patrice are blessed with another child.