Elmer crosses to Wild Island

Elmer Elevator’s crossing to Wild Island is a journey on foot that becomes a night-long trial of balance, endurance, and attention to the Old Alley Cat’s advice. After reaching the Island of Tangerina, he follows the shore to a distant chain of rocks and crosses them in darkness, finally stepping onto Wild Island after seven hours. The route’s danger is plain, but so is Elmer’s steady forward movement: even warnings about the island do not turn him back.

From Tangerina to the shoreline

Elmer wakes hungry on the Island of Tangerina, where a tangerine falling from the tree above him alerts him to the food growing all around. He remembers the island’s name and that its tangerine trees grow wild. Before setting out, he picks thirty-one tangerines, as many as he can carry. The fruit supplies provisions for the journey, but the episode also gives his departure a concrete scale: he starts toward an uncertain destination with what he can gather and carry himself.

He walks along the shore for the whole day, searching for the rocks that join the islands. When he asks a fisherman about Wild Island, the man shakes and cannot speak for a long while. He eventually tells Elmer that many people have tried to explore it and none have returned alive; people think the wild animals ate them. The warning makes the crossing more than a search for a route: it gives the destination a reputation for lethal danger. Elmer is not deterred. He continues walking and sleeps on the beach that night.

Finding the crossing

The next day is clear enough for Elmer to see a long line of rocks stretching out into the ocean. At the far end, he can just make out a tiny patch of green. The distant glimpse turns Wild Island from a frightening report into a visible destination, though it remains far away. Before beginning the approach, Elmer eats seven tangerines and continues down the beach.

By the time he reaches the rocks, it is almost dark. He rests and recalls the Old Alley Cat’s advice: if possible, go to the island at night, when the wild animals will not see him coming along the rocks and he can hide after arriving. Elmer follows that plan. He picks seven more tangerines, puts on his black rubber boots, and waits for darkness. The timing and equipment matter: he does not simply rush onto the exposed route, but prepares to cross when he is less likely to be seen and when his boots can meet the slippery stones.

Seven hours on the rocks

The night is very black, and Elmer can hardly see the rocks ahead. Their height varies; waves nearly cover some of them, while others are slippery underfoot. At points the rocks lie too far apart for an ordinary step, so he has to get a running start and leap. The crossing demands repeated adjustments to the terrain, not one decisive jump: he climbs, slips, and leaps again as he makes his way outward.

A rumbling grows louder as Elmer nears the island. He thinks he has reached the source when he lands on what turns out to be the back of a small whale, asleep and nestled between two rocks. The whale snores loudly, like a steam shovel, and does not hear Elmer speak or realize that he has jumped onto it by mistake. The episode briefly turns a hazardous crossing into an absurd misstep, but it does not provide a shortcut or change Elmer’s course. He must continue across the rocks.

Arrival on Wild Island

Elmer spends seven hours climbing, slipping, and leaping. He reaches the last rock while it is still dark and steps off onto Wild Island. His arrival completes the physical crossing but does not settle the danger that prompted the fisherman’s warning; the animals remain ahead, and the following chapter turns to the island’s river. The passage thus ends at a threshold rather than at safety. Elmer has made landfall by using the cat’s advice, carrying food, and persisting through an uncertain route, but the destination is also the beginning of the next stage of his journey.