Elatsoe: Chapter 1  Summary & Analysis

Ellie purchased a life-size plastic skull at a garage sale. She’s glued googly eyes in its sockets. Now, she offers it to her ghost dog, Kirby, figuring it’ll look really cool when he fetches it and the skull looks like it’s just floating in the air. But Kirby, who spent 12 years as Ellie’s living companion and the last five years as her ghost friend, is terrified of the skull. Ellie throws another toy for Kirby to fetch. Kirby chases it—but he stops abruptly, becomes visible (which is difficult and isn’t something he does unless Ellie commands him to), and anxiously races through the wall. The last time he acted like this, Ellie’s grandfather had just had a heart attack. Who might be hurting this time?

Ellie tries calling Mom and Dad, who are at a movie. They don’t answer, so Ellie decides to bike to the theater to find them. She plans to take the shorter route over the railroad bridge, even though it’s dangerous—it’s high above the Herotonic river and is a favorite spot for graffiti artists, human and otherwise. Calling to Kirby, Ellie pedals to the end of the driveway. She points her flashlight into a tree when she hears a hoot, and she curses: while owls are harmless, Owls are bad omens, and the hoot came from an Owl.

Ellie races through town, past Roxxie’s tavern and the signs along the river warning people that the fish are contaminated with PCBs (carcinogenic compounds). When she reaches the bridge, Ellie pedals quickly, not expecting to encounter anyone—but someone is on the bridge, and they drop their spray paint can. She mentally calls for Kirby, who appears immediately. And to Ellie’s surprise, Kirby acts like he knows the climber, who turns out to be Ellie’s oldest friend, Jay. Jay isn’t the type to vandalize a bridge. With some prodding, he reveals that he’s here because of his ex-girlfriend, Brittany: she drew a heart with their names in it before they broke up, and he wants to add a zig-zag so the heart is broken.

Since Ellie isn’t at all interested in romance herself, she struggles to understand, though she acts sympathetic. But she quickly asks if Jay was really afraid 20 minutes ago. He wasn’t, so Ellie gets back on her bike and hurries on to the theater, noting the family van in the parking lot. As she waits, she wonders who else Kirby cares about that might be in trouble. She scrolls through her texting history and finds the last conversation she had with Cousin Trevor two years ago. Trevor lives in the Rio Grande Valley with his wife, Lenore, and seven-month-old Gregory. Gregory had health issues at birth, but he’s supposed to be fine now.

Finally, moviegoers enter the lobby. Ellie finds Mom and Dad by the bathrooms and explains that Kirby had a fit. But Mom and Dad aren’t listening; they’re looking at their phones and the missed calls from Mom’s brother. Mom listens to her voicemail and then makes a phone call. Her shoulders shake, and after she hangs up, she explains that Trevor was in a bad car accident and probably isn’t going to make it. Ellie desperately starts to suggest that she could revive Trevor as a ghost, but Mom and Dad remind her that “human ghosts are terrible things.”