Escape from the Island of Aquarius, pp. 92-97<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week, several readers asked why Dr. Cooper and Jay sit around and chat with Real MacKenzie despite Lila having just been captured by Fake MacKenzie (henceforth \u201cKelno\u201d), particularly given that they\u2019ve just learned for certain that Kelno practices human sacrifice.<\/p>\n Which. What. This is a lot.<\/p>\n The answer is that Jay and Dr. Cooper ask Real MacKenzie for a way to the surface of the island, so that they can rescue Lila, only to be told that the passage via the underground river won\u2019t be open for some hours yet. Even that should not satisfy them, though, and indeed it does not\u2014they asks whether there are any alternate ways out. They\u2019re told there isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n They\u2019re stuck there.<\/p>\n Lila is having a very different experience.<\/p>\n Lila lay motionless on her cot, too sick in her soul to even pray. Would God hear her anyway? Was He really even there anymore?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Good question.<\/p>\n All over again, she saw her father and brother dropping helplessly, hopelessly into that roaring, gulping, watery grave.<\/p>\n Lord, how can I ever trust You again?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Okay, wait a minute.\u00a0We\u00a0<\/em>know that Lila\u2019s father and brother aren\u2019t dead, but while she doesn\u2019t know this yet, there\u2019s a really weird theological thing happening here. The implication seems to be that Lila will realize she truly can<\/em> trust God when she finds out God saved Jay and Dr. Cooper\u2019s lives (yeah, sure, it was the island\u2019s geology and Real MacKenzie jumping into the water to pull them out that did that, but she\u2019ll see it this way anyway). But what about all those cases where God doesn\u2019t<\/em> save someone? Can God not be trusted then?<\/em><\/p>\n While Lila is laying there, The Dude comes in. \u201cThe Dude\u201d is the term I\u2019ve been told I should use for Candle. I don\u2019t know what it means. I\u2019m told it\u2019s from a movie. I haven\u2019t seen the movie. But I am more than glad for something to call Candle, because frankly, that\u2019s not actually his name\u2014that\u2019s what the white colonizers on this island have decided to call him as a sort of joke, because he attaches a torch to his head to serve as light in the night. I didn\u2019t want to call him that and didn\u2019t have a better idea, so The Dude it is.<\/p>\n Anyway, The Dude comes in and tries to talk to Lila, but he doesn\u2019t know many words of English, despite having spent a full year amongst Kelno\u2019s people, and despite Kelno speaking to him in English several times as though he definitely understands English.<\/p>\n She looked at him very dully. As far as she was concerned, she was dead already. How could anything matter anymore? Why bother being afraid?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This feels like a very understandable reaction.<\/p>\n But his eyes seemed so strangely kind toward her. They had such an odd look in them, something between sorrow and fear. He offered her the food. She only cared blankly at him.<\/p>\n He put the plate down and then knelt there beside the bed, trying to speak, trying to come up with words.<\/p>\n \u201cYou \u2026 your papa \u2026\u201d he said, struggling, looking this way and that ass if the words would come to him out of the air, or maybe from off the walls. \u201cMe \u2026 Me-Bwah!\u201d<\/p>\n Lila wasn\u2019t interested in what this savage had to say.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes, that in fact and actually is what it says.<\/p>\n I feel almost like I\u2019m reading the same damn book as the first one. If anyone had listened to Gozan, in the last book, they would have been saved an awful lot of trouble\u2014he\u2019s the one who correctly suspected from the beginning what was actually going on. But instead of listening they dismissed him. Over and over again. Repeatedly. Silly superstitious native<\/em>.<\/p>\n And here it is again! The Dude knows what\u2019s going on here, and has been trying throughout this book to help the Coopers out\u2014even as they resist his help, over and over again, and never even consider the idea that they should listen to him. Silly babbling savage.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n And here\u2019s the thing\u2014there\u2019s never, ever a moment where our heroes realize they were idiots for not listening to the native. They never, ever apologize. Lila learns, later, that The Dude is a Christian\u2014a convert of the Real MacKenzie\u2019s\u2014and even then<\/em> she continues treating him like a child\u2014and she certainly never apologizes for dismissing him.<\/p>\n But we\u2019re not there yet. We\u2019re still here, with Lila on the cot, and The Dude trying to communicate to her that he wants to help her\u2014trying to make her listen to him.<\/p>\n Candle rattled on at her in his own words, so frantically and quickly that there was no hope of understanding a thing he was saying. But she couldn\u2019t help seeing the sincerity in his eyes. Was he truly concerned for her?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat, Candle?\u201d she finally asked quietly. \u201cWhat are you trying to tell me?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At this moment they are interrupted; Kelno approaches and they both fall silent. But this reads very oddly. Are we meant to think Lila did wrong to judge The Dude a moment ago? What are we to make of any<\/em> of this?<\/p>\n The Cooper\u2019s biggest enemy in both books isn\u2019t the external danger they face; it\u2019s their prejudice, which renders them unable to hear or heed warnings, and their cockamamie confidence, which renders them certain they know everything already.<\/p>\n There were footsteps outside, and Candle quickly grabbed up the plate of food and stood there beside the cot, looking like his old, threatening, savage self.<\/p>\n In came the tyrant, the murderer, the antichrist, and oh, was he gloating, and smirking, and cutting her down to size with his eyes!<\/p>\n \u201cWell, Miss Cooper,\u201d he said, swaggering back and forth and letting little chuckles hiss out through his nose, \u201cI trust you are comfortable.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Did he twirl his mustache too??<\/p>\n Also, The Dude returned to \u201clooking like his old, threatening, savage self\u201d?? This is the good guy we\u2019re talking about here! Why are we doing this, what is the narrative point we\u2019re making? No one ever says \u201cwhat the the hell, maybe we shouldn\u2019t have assumed Polynesian natives were de facto threatening because what hey, it was the native guy who was trying to help all along and it was the white westerner who TRIED TO F*CKING KILL US.\u201d<\/p>\n These books\u00a0make no sense.\u00a0<\/em>In the hands of someone else, this could be a very good story about the dangers of making assumptions and treating people with bigotry and prejudice. But this is not that story. Peretti never even tries<\/em> to make this that story. So what is he doing?<\/em><\/p>\n She spoke not a word.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s quite all right. I don\u2019t expect you to speak to me. It must have been quite a horrible shock for you to find out how feeble your God really is. You know, I tried to warn your father time and again, but \u2026 oh, he was so brazen! Now you see, of course, that it was a very costly mistake! I would say his trust\u2014and your trust\u2014-in this high and mighty God of yours was most severely misplaced!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You see, you see what I mean! MacKenzie is claiming that Lila can\u2019t trust God because he didn\u2019t save her father and brother, and later we\u2019ll learn that she can<\/em> trust him because he did<\/em> save her father and brother\u2014what the heck is that supposed to mean for people who prematurely lose loved ones to cancer, or in car accidents? Are they to conclude that they can\u2019t trust God, or that their God is \u201cfeeble\u201d? The theology here makes no sense.<\/p>\n Anyway, at this point Lila correctly guesses that he\u2019s not actually Adam MacKenzie, and then we get \u2026 this.<\/p>\n He laughed loudly and rudely. \u201cNo, no, my child, no! I only led you to believe I was the late Reverend MacKenzie so you would be satisfied that you\u2019d found him and leave the island with a good report. I had no idea you would be so snoopy and persistent! No, actually the name is Stuart Kelno.\u00a0Lord\u00a0<\/em>Stuart Kelno, the last and ultimate prophet! This is my world, my creation. Here, on Aquarius,\u00a0I\u00a0<\/em>am God.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Um what.<\/p>\n I actually want to know a lot more about Kelno. What are his teachings, exactly? What does he believe about himself, and about this place? Because frankly, there doesn\u2019t seem to be any consistent thread, just a tangle of random things Peretti thinks are bad. New age mysticism and witchcraft and paganism; Kelno\u2019s claim that he is building a community founded on peace and harmony, and Kelno\u2019s statement that he is a prophet and the God of this island. I\u2019m not saying these can\u2019t<\/em> all fit together; I\u2019m just interested in how<\/em> they all fit together.<\/p>\n Also, for all that Kelno is the one imprisoning and threatening her, it\u2019s Dr. Cooper who put Lila in this place by deciding not to leave an island he knew<\/em> was dangerous and ruled by a madman, thus intentionally and consciously placing his two minor children in grave danger.<\/p>\n Lila says that Kelno isn\u2019t God, and that he\u2019ll have to answer to God\u2014she sounds more certain of herself than she was feeling a moment ago. Kelno gets mad and then Lila decides to simply stop talking to him. This makes him more<\/em> mad and he leaves in a huff.<\/p>\n So, points for Lila.<\/p>\n At this point we return to Dr. Cooper and Jay, who are having a leisurely supper with the Real MacKenzie when they notice an air current. The Real MacKenzie tells them it\u2019s because the underground river passage is starting to open up, but says they can\u2019t go anywhere until The Dude shows up with the canoe. But Dr. Cooper is pretty sure there\u2019s something else going on\u2014he says there wouldn\u2019t be an air current if there wasn\u2019t another opening.<\/p>\n Dr. Cooper follows the air, aided by some smoke whips, and then climbs partway up one of the walls until he finds the opening to a tunnel of some sort. The Real MacKenzie says he hadn\u2019t really noticed it before, but also that weird smells and noises come from up there sometimes, so he thinks it\u2019s inhabited.<\/p>\n The Real MacKenzie tells Dr. Cooper and Jay that there is a creature of some sort that lives in the tunnels of the islands and features in native lore, and that Kelno oversees human sacrifices to this creature. This makes Dr. Cooper excited; he tells Jay that he was probably right about there being a volcanic vent at the bottom of the pit of bones that they saw, and that probably Lila is going to be sacrificed there, and that probably this tunnel leads there.<\/p>\n So they all hop into the tunnel.<\/p>\n Which. What.<\/p>\n