Boy Swallows Universe

Instead of a Christmas tree, Dad, Eli, and August decorate Dad’s potted weeping fig. The fig, Dad explains, is named Henry Bath, and Henry is extremely sensitive to changes in location—it makes him cry, just like Eli did as a baby. Eli is shocked by the reminder that Dad was around when he was a baby. Once Henry is decorated, Dad suggests that tomorrow, they each choose a book from the book room for someone (August and Eli have both been enjoying the mountain of books) and then enjoy the treats in the charity box from St. Vincent’s. August claps, but Eli rolls his eyes and asks how the day will be different than any other. Dad says they can read together in the living room, and then they all draw names out of a hat. Eli lies that he’ll be here to celebrate tomorrow.

Early on Christmas morning, Eli puts a copy of Papillon under the tree for August and walks to the train station in a nearby suburb. A man at the racetrack reminds Eli of Slim—but Slim is in the hospital. Eli passes a cannery and then reaches the old red truck Slim’s note told him about. The man in the front seat, presumably George, ignores Eli’s words of thanks and promises to be quiet. He simply opens up a false bottom in a crate and motions Eli into the space. George says “Merry Christmas” as he closes Eli in. Eli feels like he’s finally living and doing something as the truck roars to life. He thinks of Irene and Caitlyn Spies as the truck stops again and a forklift moves Eli’s crate. Watermelons crash in above him.

Eli tries to imagine Irene and Caitlyn on the beach, but instead he sees Slim, bloody and unmoving, and Iwan Krol dragging Lyle away. Eli can’t see Lyle’s head and, suddenly, he accepts that he’s known the truth since Lyle disappeared. Eli is jolted back to the present when the truck stops and he hears George joking with a man. Men look at the fruit and observe that the inmates eat better than they do. The truck drives through a gate, and another forklift lifts Eli’s crate down. Before he leaves, George whispers good luck to Eli through an air hole.

While he waits, Eli uses how afraid he is to make time speed up. He thinks about Mum, the man on the red telephone, and what Mrs. Birkbeck said about kids and trauma. He thinks about getting a butterfly tattoo on his chest so he can tell people he got it after breaking into the Boggo Road women’s prison to save Mum. This experience, he thinks, will turn him from a larva in a watermelon cocoon into a butterfly.

After what seems like hours, someone unloads the watermelons and opens the false bottom. The woman is Aboriginal, with graying hair, and she smiles warmly and wishes Eli a merry Christmas. She helps him out and introduces herself as Bernie. Eli gives her an update on Slim, and then Bernie says everyone in the prison is talking about Eli. Every woman who’s ever had a baby, she says, will want to hold him. Bernie offers Eli an apple, but when Eli asks how Mum is and if he can go see her, Bernie points out that Eli is in a women’s prison—he can’t just ask a guard to show him to Mum’s cell. Eli needs to convince her why she should help him.

Before Eli can answer, he hears a choir singing “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” the same song the man on the red telephone was singing. A young woman knocks and lets herself in. Introducing herself as Debbie, she says that Mum is “vacant” and won’t respond to anything. Sighing, Bernie says Mum is in tough shape. She’s not eating, and she hasn’t left her cell in a long time. Eli says he’s aware; that’s why he’s here. But Bernie says Mum doesn’t want Eli to see her like this. Eli doesn’t care—whenever he tells Mum things will be alright, things work out. Bernie teases Eli for being magic, but Eli says Mum was right when she said he and August are special.

From his hiding spot in a wheeled trash can, Eli listens to the prisoners’ Christmas musical, which is a mashup of the Nativity and the musical Grease. Bernie wheels him past the loud rec room, makes several turns, and stops. After reminding Eli he doesn’t know her, Bernie helps him out and points to Mum’s cell. Eli can’t see into Mum’s tall window, so he pulls himself up the wall. Mum looks small, fragile, and unkempt. She’s so thin, and her eyes are blank. Eli realizes she’s staring blankly at a photo of him and August. He taps on the window and starts to whisper to her, but she doesn’t hear. She finally notices him and looks happy for a moment, but then she shakes her head. She won’t open the door.

Crying, Eli lets himself down and imagines the red telephone and Lena’s room. He thinks of Mum and he sings her favorite song, “Ruby Tuesday.” Eli decides he doesn’t care about anything anymore, but then Mum opens the door and falls to the ground next to Eli. They hug, and Eli says that August said things will get better after this. Eli makes Mum say that she believes him.

From the end of the hallway, a woman curses—why does Mum get a visitor today when no one else does? Eli tells Mum she’s strong and then runs away from the other woman. Pretending he’s a rugby player, Eli dodges guards and races over tables in the dining room. Inmates cheer him on as he reaches an exterior door and as Bernie—feigning ignorance—holds up the guards by pushing a trash can slowly in front of them. As he crosses the lawn, Eli opens his backpack. Inside is a grappling hook (like Slim did, Eli has been practicing with it). Eli reaches the exterior wall and throws the grappling hook just as a guard comes around the corner.

Ignoring the guard’s shouts, Eli climbs the rope. He feels like Batman, and this is working. Guards tell Eli to come down and insist his rope will snap, but Eli feels on top of the world. He wonders if Slim’s escape was this thrilling. A meter from the top of the wall, Eli pauses to rest and gallantly waves at the guards. As he starts to call himself the Wizard of Boggo Road, the garden rake that makes up the grappling hook snaps. As Eli falls, he squeaks, “Dad.”