Chap­ter I intro­duces the pro­tag­o­nist, who reflects on the family’s recent deci­sion to relo­cate to a remote area fol­low­ing a trau­mat­ic event involv­ing her broth­er, Fish. Their pre­vi­ous home, nes­tled by the coast, had been a place where the pro­tag­o­nist had always felt a deep con­nec­tion to the ocean—its waves and rhythm pro­vid­ed com­fort and solace. How­ev­er, Fish’s rela­tion­ship with water was far from serene; his con­nec­tion to the sea seemed to sum­mon storms rather than peace. This dan­ger­ous pat­tern led the fam­i­ly to make the dif­fi­cult deci­sion to move far inland, away from the coast, seek­ing safe­ty in a place untouched by the chaos caused by Fish’s unset­tling con­nec­tion to the water. The fate­ful hur­ri­cane that trig­gered the move occurred on Fish’s thir­teenth birth­day, which abrupt­ly changed the course of what should have been a joy­ful cel­e­bra­tion. As the storm vio­lent­ly tore through their home, caus­ing trees to crash and win­dows to shat­ter, the family’s attempts to keep Fish calm became the focus, while the storm itself sym­bol­ized the deep­er tur­moil they all felt.

After the hur­ri­cane had passed, the fam­i­ly set­tled in a remote area locat­ed between Nebras­ka and Kansas, a place they humor­ous­ly dubbed Kansas­ka-Nebransas. This stretch of land, dis­tant from any major bod­ies of water, offered a sense of safe­ty, with the fam­i­ly hop­ing to pre­vent future storms. The iso­la­tion brought with it both advan­tages and draw­backs. While the fam­i­ly found solace in the peace of their new home, the absence of neigh­bors and the near­est town’s lack of basic ameni­ties left them feel­ing dis­con­nect­ed from the world they once knew. Though the loca­tion promised calm and sta­bil­i­ty, it also fos­tered a sense of long­ing for their old life by the coast, where the pro­tag­o­nist had felt a part of the nat­ur­al beau­ty sur­round­ing them. Despite the peace, there was a yearn­ing for the vibran­cy they had left behind.

In the midst of this new chap­ter in their lives, Grand­pa Bom­ba intro­duces an ele­ment of humor and whim­sy into the family’s dynam­ic. He is a fig­ure of light­heart­ed­ness, often shar­ing out­landish sto­ries and tales that enter­tain his fam­i­ly. One of his favorite sto­ries revolves around his own thir­teenth birth­day, dur­ing which he claims Ida­ho came into exis­tence, adding a play­ful, fan­tas­ti­cal tone to the oth­er­wise seri­ous atmos­phere. These sto­ries, while seem­ing­ly triv­ial, offer a con­trast to the protagonist’s own antic­i­pa­tion of her thir­teenth birth­day. Unlike Grandpa’s whim­si­cal tales, the pro­tag­o­nist is anx­ious about the mile­stone birth­day, as she hopes to unlock a spe­cial abil­i­ty, or “savvy,” that runs in her fam­i­ly. This abil­i­ty has been passed down through gen­er­a­tions, with each mem­ber dis­play­ing a unique tal­ent. How­ev­er, the pro­tag­o­nist’s excite­ment is tem­pered by the knowl­edge that her broth­er Rock­et, at sev­en­teen, has already show­cased his spe­cial power—electricity. Rocket’s teas­ing com­ments about girls not hav­ing remark­able savvies only add to the rival­ry among the sib­lings, illus­trat­ing the ten­sion and play­ful teas­ing that often occurs between fam­i­ly mem­bers, espe­cial­ly when one sib­ling seems to out­shine the oth­ers.

As the protagonist’s birth­day approach­es, the excite­ment and antic­i­pa­tion are cloud­ed by the weight of fam­i­ly expec­ta­tions and per­son­al anx­i­eties. At a fam­i­ly din­ner, the mood shifts unex­pect­ed­ly when a phone call dis­rupts the evening, deliv­er­ing trag­ic news. The protagonist’s father, Pop­pa, has been involved in a seri­ous car acci­dent and is now unre­spon­sive in the hos­pi­tal. This shock­ing rev­e­la­tion casts a long shad­ow over the fam­i­ly, turn­ing what should have been a cel­e­bra­to­ry moment into one of wor­ry and sor­row. The pro­tag­o­nist, par­tic­u­lar­ly, feels the emo­tion­al weight of this news, her dis­ap­point­ment and anger grow­ing as she real­izes that her thir­teenth birth­day will no longer hold the joy­ful sig­nif­i­cance she had imag­ined. Instead of feel­ing spe­cial, she feels the bur­den of the family’s cri­sis weigh­ing heav­i­ly on her, over­shad­ow­ing her own hopes and dreams for the future.

This chap­ter serves as a poignant intro­duc­tion to the emo­tion­al land­scape of the protagonist’s life, as she nav­i­gates fam­i­ly ten­sions, per­son­al aspi­ra­tions, and the loom­ing chal­lenges of grow­ing up. The con­trast between her excite­ment for her birth­day and the dev­as­tat­ing news about her father cre­ates a pow­er­ful nar­ra­tive that reflects the unpre­dictabil­i­ty of life. While the family’s love for each oth­er is clear, their cir­cum­stances and the weight of life-alter­ing events show how frag­ile their world is. The protagonist’s jour­ney is set up as one that will be shaped by these famil­ial chal­lenges, as she must rec­on­cile her per­son­al dreams and desires with the real­i­ties of the world around her. The chap­ter skill­ful­ly com­bines ele­ments of humor, sad­ness, and ten­sion, weav­ing a sto­ry that promis­es both growth and emo­tion­al depth for the pro­tag­o­nist as she faces the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly life and self-dis­cov­ery.