In the chap­ter titled “King of the World” from the year 1969, Kya sets off in her boat to the wharf man­aged by Jumpin’ to acquire a bus sched­ule. Her jour­ney is fueled by an uneasy antic­i­pa­tion; she is to meet her edi­tor, Robert Fos­ter, in per­son for the first time after years of exchang­ing let­ters and notes on her book’s artis­tic and edi­to­r­i­al con­tent. These exchanges, rich with tech­ni­cal insights and poet­ic expres­sion, have fos­tered a unique bond between them, cen­tered around their shared love for the nat­ur­al world’s beau­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly not­ing the intri­cate details of hum­ming­bird feath­ers.

Upon her arrival, Jumpin’ engages in light con­ver­sa­tion, intrigued by Kya’s trav­el plans to Greenville to meet her edi­tor. How­ev­er, the con­ver­sa­tion takes a grave turn when Jumpin’ notices and inquires about the bruis­es on Kya’s face—remnants of an assault by Chase almost a month pri­or. Despite her ini­tial attempt to deflect with a com­mon excuse, Kya con­fess­es the truth to Jumpin’, reveal­ing it was indeed Chase who hurt her. This marked a sig­nif­i­cant moment for Kya, as she had not admit­ted this to any­one before. The acknowl­edg­ment of her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and Jump­in’s con­cern reflects a deep trust between them. Jumpin’ reacts with a mix of anger and pro­tec­tive­ness, sug­gest­ing ret­ri­bu­tion against Chase for his actions.

This chap­ter del­i­cate­ly explores themes of trust, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, and the com­plex­i­ties of human con­nec­tions against the back­drop of Kya’s iso­lat­ed exis­tence and her deep bond with nature. It also touch­es on the impact of vio­lence and the sup­port that comes from unex­pect­ed places, show­cas­ing Jumpin’s pro­tec­tive stance towards Kya despite the qui­et, reserved nature of their rela­tion­ship.