Morning Girl

While the storm damaged many homes and structures, luckily, no one died. Morning Girl reflects that the essentials (sunlight and the stars) remain untouched, and everything else can be rebuilt. Morning Girl, along with her parents, finds Star Boy safe in the tree where their baby sister and grandfather rest. When they tell their grandmother, she smiles. Although some families lost their homes, the storm brought an unexpected bounty: coconuts, fruits, and fish washed ashore, which the community gathers. Father views this as “a chance to be happy together, to dance and make music on hollow logs, to watch ball games, to sing good-bye to the wind, and to share the food that had been presented to us as its apology” (47).

Everyone gathers by the shore, and Morning Girl feels shy that there are so many people. Everyone is “bright as wet shells, each person painted and decorated differently. Some wore flattened gold leaves in their earlobes, some placed hibiscus blooms in their hair or hung long necklaces of shells around their necks” (47). There is an abundance of food cooked by each family. Unlike Morning Girl, Star Boy races ahead of everyone else to get food, probably emboldened by his adventure.