The Host: Day 4--Chapters 9 and 10

I think these two chapters are the turning points for Wanderer and Melanie in the book. Wanderer decides to travel to see her first Healer, Fords Deep Waters, about what to do about her situation with Melanie. The Seeker wants Wanderer to skip to another Host, since she obviously can't control Melanie. Wanderer no longer trusts the Seeker, so she wants to talk to the Healer about what to do.

On the way there, Melanie keeps dreaming about Jared and Jamie. She knows that if the Seeker was to invade her body, it would mean that she had lost. The Seeker would do everything to get the rest of Melanie's secret. In chapter 9, Wanderer decides that she will do her best to keep Melanie away from the Seeker. She realizes that she has grown to care for Jared and Jamie about as much as Melanie herself does. As Wanderer continues to drive, Melanie dreams about a picture of a scribbles, which they figure out is a map to a hideout that her uncle showed her. Her uncle Jeb was one of the "nutters" who suspected alien invasions and stuff before it actually happened, so they were prepared for when the Souls came. Wanderer and Melanie decide that they are going to find that hideout, because that is where Jamie and Jared will be.

In chapter 10, they stop at at a gas station to get some water and a few other supplies, avoiding eye contact with the other people there. This where my favorite quotation from today comes from.

Wanderer wants to continue driving on the little road as much as possible. Melanie wants to be out walking, like what she was doing before she was captured. Wanderer doesn't think that would satisfy her.

"I could feel the real desire beneath the surface. Freedom. To move her body to the familiar rhythm of her long stride with only her will for guidance. For a moment, I allowed myself to see the prison that was life without a body. To be carried inside but unable to influence the shape around you. To be trapped. To have no choices."

There have been times when I have felt stuck, unable to go anywhere. I still can't imagine what it would be like in the scenario that Wanderer just described. That would be unbearable.

I want to leave with a quote from one of my favorite movies:
"Not just the Spanish Main, love. The entire ocean. The entire wo'ld. Wherever we want to go, we'll go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs, but what a ship is... what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom." 

---Amelia