Swamplandia

Kiwi receives his first paycheck and assumes that there has been some mistake. He takes it to the employee who processes payroll at the World of Darkness, and is informed that his uniform, meals, and housing are not free, and that he is also paying a variety of taxes. He is sure that charging employees for their uniforms must be illegal, but apparently it is not. Chagrined, he realizes that it is going to be difficult, on his current salary, to help his family save Swamplandia!

The Chief calls to check on the girls, and Ava tells him that everything is fine. Her red gator is growing, and although she contemplates telling Osceola, she decides against it. Her sister continues to be withdrawn and does not want to talk to Ava. Ava asks her about Louis, and Osceola agrees to tell Ava how he had first become a ghost.

At 17, Louis had been the youngest crew member on the dredger. He’d told the other guy that he’d been “born dead,” which was semi-true because initially the doctor who delivered him had initially thought that he was stillborn. His mother died during childbirth, but after a few moments of silence, Louis began crying loudly. An orphan, he was adopted by a cruel, midwestern farmer, and until he escaped at 16, his life had been difficult. He’d ridden the rails down to Florida and gotten a job with the Civilian Conservation Corps in Titusville. He was lucky to obtain this position, because the Great Depression had rendered work extremely difficult to find, and when his contract ended, he signed up for another six months. He was now working on a dredger, digging canals. The work was difficult, and his original group of friends from the Civilian Conservation Corps had all left. The days were long, hot, and humid, and the men were swarmed by insects and fell victim to a host of health issues. One night, in an accident on the boat, Louis’s coworker Gideon dies, and his body is taken away by a flock of buzzards. Louis had been sure that he was next and, as Osceola sadly tells her sister, he was.

Osceola tells Ava that Louis has shown her the location of the entrance to the underworld. Ava explains that this spot, called the Eye of the Needle, is just a channel between two Calusa mounds. These mounds, crafted hundreds of years ago by the Calusa people, a group indigenous to the area that would become known as the Ten Thousand Islands, were one of the only visible remnants of the local, pre-colonial cultures. Osceola insists that, in addition to being a real place, the Eye of the Needle is also a portal, and that Louis travels back and forth from his own afterlife to the present day through its passage.

The days pass, and Osceola continues to disappear at night, claiming to be spending her time with Louis. Ava takes care of her red gator and begins training it, hoping to develop a performance routine that could help save the park. One morning, the girls awake to find a tiny note asking for “payment for services rendered,” signed, “The Bird Man” (156). They spend the day gathering orchids, and later Osceola leaves to go join Louis. Ava discovers a strange man in one of their trees, and he turns out to be the Bird Man. He travels throughout Florida, calling unwanted birds from a particular property and convincing them to fly away. Ava takes a liking to him, and although she cannot pay him, offers to let him sleep in their home. She shows him her red alligator and he agrees that the creature is beautiful. Ava finds a note from Osceola: Her sister has eloped with Louis and tells Ava that she does not plan to return.

Kiwi is still working at the World of Darkness, but he makes so little money that he cannot afford to do his laundry. He borrows his friend Vijay’s dandruff shampoo, which he uses to wash his clothing in the shower. He asks Vijay about the possibility of working at one of the nearby businesses, but Vijay shoots his idea down, explaining that the gas station is too dangerous and the burger joint pays even less than the World. While the two sit on the roof talking, a low-flying plane passes overhead. The park is developing a new ride in which tourists can fly over the Melaleuca-ravaged Everglades and take photographs. Kiwi thinks about the original pilots who distributed Melaleuca seeds throughout the Glades, which he learned about both from his father and by watching a documentary. He vows to ask Carl if he can train as a pilot: The park has organized its own flight school for their new project. Vijay laughs at the idea, but Kiwi sets off to ask Carl. Carl, too, laughs at the idea, but tells Kiwi that he can instead train as a lifeguard. Kiwi asks if this would be a promotion, and Carl responds that he guesses Kiwi could consider it that.

When Ava wakes up, the Bird Man is in the kitchen making breakfast. She shows him Osceola’s note and asks what he thinks she should do. She confesses to the Bird Man that Osceola tends to fabricate stories, and that she does not think that her sister truly has a fiancé. She tells him that the dredge barge is missing, and although she does not think Osceola capable of piloting such a craft (and a decrepit one, at that) the family has underestimated her before, and anything is possible. When Ava suggests calling the authorities, the Bird Man points out that no one would believe that Osceola had been encouraged to run away by a ghost, and that the authorities would probably find the Bigtree family’s living situation unacceptable and remove the children from their family. Ava realizes that her father will also be of no help and asks the Bird Man to help ferry her to the Eye of the Needle, between the Calusa shell mounds. After some hesitation, he agrees. They pack food and supplies, and set out. The Bird Man tells Ava that they are likely to meet unsavory characters on their way to the underworld, and that she is not to give out any information about their quest. Ava brings her red alligator, although she does not think it is fair to the creature.

Kiwi has registered for a nighttime GED course, and Vijay gives him a ride into Loomis. He is late for class and is admonished by the teacher before he can even sit down. During introductions, the other students mock him and call him “white boy.” He realizes that he is the butt of an unpleasant joke that he overhears and wonders why people are so cruel. He reflects that Swamplandia! did not prepare him for life on the mainland. Kiwi is given a diagnostic test that he struggles with and afterwards is provided with two textbooks. He eyes the other students with wariness and feels a deep sense of anxiety. When Vijay picks him up, there are two girls in the car, and the four of them head to the movies. Kiwi finds the girls hostile and annoying, and is happy when they leave and head back home to the World of Darkness.