The Underneath

by Kathi Appelt

  The snake looked at the tiny bird. She looked familiar. She had seen this little one before. Then, all at once, she knew. “Granddaughter!” She sighed.

  “Yes,” said the tiny bird, “I’ve been looking for you.”

  High above, a solitary hawk caught the breeze and cried, “Screeeeee!!!” Then he disappeared into the clouds.

  124

  FOR TREES, STORIES never end, they simply fold one into another. Where one begins to close, another begins to open, so that none are ever finished, not really. For Puck and Sabine and Ranger, this old story was the beginning of their new one.

  After Grandmother snapped the chain that had bound Ranger to the man for so many years, the small family walked away from the Bayous Tartine and the dangerous spit of land that sat between them.

  Where are they now, Puck, Sabine, and Ranger?

  If you walked into this old and forgotten forest, you would know they did not return to the tilted house with its yard of bones and skins, gone now, struck by a bolt of lightning that zipped from the darkened sky and burned it completely away, a fire so hot it left only a mound of dark, black coals that simmered and seethed for days afterward. No, they would not be there.

  Nor would you see them at the base of the old tree, the loblolly pine that stood for a thousand years, all of it gone, washed away in the Little Sorrowful, that creek made of tears, carried downstream to the silver Sabine, and delivered at last to the beautiful blue Gulf of Mexico.

  Nevertheless, they are here.

  If you could ask the trees about them, the sweet gums and tupelos, the sycamores and oaks, oh, if only you could decipher the dialects of tallow and chestnut and alder, they would tell you that here, in this lost piney woods, this forest that sits between the highways on the border of Texas and Louisiana, here among the deer paths and giant ferns, along the abandoned trails of the Caddo, here in this forest as old as the sky and sea, live a pair of silver twins and an old hound who sings the blues, right here . . .

  Puck . . .

  Sabine . . .

  . . . and Ranger.

  Here.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A novel does not happen all by itself. It takes a village, and I am blessed to have a host of villagers who took time out of their lives to read this story in all of its incarnations. Many thanks go to my mother, Pat Childress, who just never stops believing; Rose Eder, who would not let Ranger die; Diane Linn, oh wise and wonderful soul that she is, who consistently believed in Grandmother; Donna Hanna Calvert, bearer of light and wonder; Daren Appelt, timekeeper as well as the brother I always wanted; Debbie Leland, who can see things that others can’t.

  Many others helped along the way as well, including Kimberly Willis Holt, Jeanette Ingold, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Lola Schaeffer, Marion Dane Bauer, Adrienne Ross, Candice Ransom, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, Laura Ruby, Anne Bustard, and Mary Mansoorian. Alison McGhee sent me small messages of encouragement through every draft.

  Could I ever have written this without my students and colleagues at Vermont College? Absolutely not.

  I doubt very much that this book would ever have seen the light of day without the wise counseling of Dennis Foley, who told me early on that this was Puck’s story; and Tobin (M. T.) Anderson, who said, I’ll never forget this, “Write what you think you can’t.”

  I’m also grateful to the folks at Caddo Mounds State Park, outside of Athens, Texas, for taking time to talk to me about the mysterious and wondrous Caddo, who inhabited the woodland areas of East Texas for thousands of years, who were master craftspeople and still are.

  If you think that a book can be written without considerable hand-holding, you would be mistaken. My agents, Emily E. Van Beek and Holly McGhee, kept telling me to push, push, push. And I did, even though it was messy and sometimes painful.

  And then there is my editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, who is the resident seer, curandera, and asker of perfect questions. Medicine woman.

  A writer needs people in her life who believe in her, even when the dishes in the sink are dirty and she stays tucked away in her cave for hours on end. I have those people—my two handsome sons, Jacob and Cooper, and my sweet and beautiful husband, Ken. They are the melody to my song. They are.

  Kathi Appelt, at the age of seven, stumbled and fell into an alligator pit in San Antonio, Texas, a place where there should be no alligators or alligator pits. Fortunately she was a lot bigger than the alligator, who was more scared of her than she was of it!

  She is a member of the faculty at Vermont College’s Master of Fine Arts program and occasionally teaches creative writing at Texas A&M University. She has two grown children, and lives in Texas with her husband and four cats. This is her debut novel.

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  An abandoned calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound dog deep in the backwaters of the bayou, and sets out to find him. When they finally meet, Mama the calico cat and Ranger the bloodhound form a fast and unlikely bond, forged in loneliness and fueled by fierce love. They become a family after the kittens are born, and Ranger urges Mama to remain under the porch and raise Sabine and Puck, because Gar Face—the evil man living inside the house—will surely use her or her kittens as alligator bait should he find them. They’ll be safe in the Underneath . . . as long as they stay there.

  But in a moment of curiosity, one of the kittens sets off an astonishing chain of events that reverberates through the bayou, and brings the past together with the present in remarkable ways. Following the tradition of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Flannery O’Connor, and Carson McCullers, in The Underneath Kathi Appelt spins a harrowing yet keenly sweet tale filled with many absorbing themes, such as the power of love (and of hate), the fragility of happiness, and the importance of making good on your promises. This guide is designed to assist your discussion of this poignant novel.

  PRE-READING ACTIVITY

  1. The action in the book takes place in the marshy swampland and deep forests of Texas’s bayou region. Research bayous and their ecosystems and prepare a report. In what parts of the world do bayous exist? What kinds of plants and animals live in bayous? How are bayous similar to and different from other ecological environments—for example, what do bayous have in common with the Florida Everglades, and how do the two areas differ?

  2. Long before the Europeans settled along the Gulf Coast, a varied group of Native Americans live in the piney woods of East Texas and Louisiana. They were collectively known as the Caddo. It was from the Caddo language that the name for the state of Texas came about. The name meant “friend.” In fact, the Caddo were known as a friendly people. Even though Hawk Man and his family weren’t Caddo themselves, they might have been welcome in a Caddo village, just as the later Europeans were welcomed. Research the Caddo. There are hardly any left in their original homeland, and they have mostly settled in Oklahoma and Mexico. Why did they leave? What were some of the things that they were famous for? How did they learn to survive in the marshy swamps of their native territory?

  DISCUSSION TOPICS

  1. Grandmother Moccasin and her daughter Night Song are lamia, half-serpent and half-human. Hawk Man is also an “animal of enchantment”, having been a bird before turning into a man. If you could be a shape-shifter, which animal would you choose to become? What do you think of the shape-shifter rule: “Once a creature of enchantment returns to its animal form, it cannot go back” ? If you were Hawk Man or his daughter, would you have become an animal again, even if it meant you could never return to your human form?

  2. Until he meets Mama the calico cat, Ranger the bloodhound doesn’t realize how lonely he is; Ranger muses that when Mama found him “he didn’t know that he needed to not be so solitary until at last he wasn’t.” What are the differences between being alone, and being lonely? Is it possible to be lonely even when you’re surrounded by people?

  3. Abused as a child and later abandoned by his father, Gar Face the trapper lives in a world of anger,
and his drinking only deepens his hatred. Does anything make Gar Face happy? If so, what is it? Even though he does evil things throughout the book, do you think he deserved to die in the jaws of the Alligator King?

  4. When an author assigns human characteristics to nonhuman beings, this is called anthropomorphism. What are some examples of anthropomorphism in the book? In real life, do you think plants or animals have feelings like human beings do?

  5. Sabine the kitten is named for the Sabine River that feeds the Bayou Tartine. Her brother’s name is the same as the playful character in Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream—Puck is a mischievous spirit who often gets into trouble. What do the names of some the characters in The Underneath—like those of the kittens, Gar Face, Ranger, Night Song—reveal about their personalities? Does your name have a special origin, or are you named for a family member? How does your name reflect who you are?

  6. Ranger, Mama, Sabine, and Puck refer to themselves as a family. What makes a family? Does a family only consist of parents, children, and relatives? Describe your own family—does it include people who aren’t related to you?

  7. When Puck gets lost in the forest after his mother drowns, he has to learn to hunt in order to eat. Sabine realizes she needs to go out from “the Underneath” so she can find food for herself and Ranger, a job that Mama performed. These are just two ways that the kittens have to grow up—what are other examples?

  8. Hawk Man, having turned back into a bird in order to find his daughter, spies Puck lost and hungry in the woods, and drops a mouse from the sky for Puck to eat. Name some other acts of kindness from the story.

  9. As Gar Face captures Sabine in the yard, Ranger goes wild with fury and lunges at Gar Face, knocks him down, and bites him on the leg—allowing Sabine to escape. Were you surprised at Ranger’s reaction? Why didn’t Gar Face expect that Ranger might behave this way?

  10. “You have to go back for your sister. If something happens to me, promise you’ll find her.” Did you think that Puck would be able to keep this promise to his mother? Talk about some other promises made by characters in the novel—were they kept? How, and at what cost?

  11. Music plays a big role in the book, from the blues songs that Ranger bays into the moonlight to the enchanting lullabies of Night Song. Discuss music and what it means in the story. How does music help some of the characters?

  12. Talk about Grandmother Moccasin. Do you think she was selfish for not telling Night Song about the rule that shape-shifters can’t go back to their human form once they become an animal? Did she deserve to be imprisoned in the jar for so long? What is the lesson she learns after she’s finally freed?

  13. One of the novel’s main themes is loss. Which of the characters have lost something, and what did they lose? Do the characters who suffer loss eventually find something new to take the place of what is gone?

  14. When children don’t obey to their parents in The Underneath, bad things happen. Who were the characters who didn’t listen to their parents? What were the consequences of their disobedience? Did these characters learn from their mistakes?

  15. Dogs and cats are supposed to hate each other, yet Ranger and Mama become close friends. Discuss their unlikely friendship—what were some of the things they have in common? What are other unusual friendships portrayed in the book? Do you have a friend who, on the surface, seems like someone you wouldn’t ordinarily like? Why do you get along with this person?

  ACTIVITIES & PROJECTS

  1. The voices of birds, animals, and reptiles tell most of the story in The Underneath. Write your own story from a creature’s point of view, whether it’s a household pet, or animal in the wild, or bird, reptile, fish, or some other living thing.

  2. How does the narrative structure of The Underneath—where several characters take turns telling the story—resemble that of a television show? Research how to write a television screenplay. Choose one scene from the book and write a screenplay based on it, and include the characters’ dialogue, the stage direction, and descriptions of the scenery.

  3. Ranger the bloodhound bays mournfully about loneliness; drawn to his songs, Mama the calico cat sets out to find who sings them. Pick an emotion—loneliness, anger, fear, love—and write song lyrics, or a poem, about feelings you have.

  4. The book’s last chapter contains a passage about the trees of the bayou, how they could tell us what happened to Ranger, Sabine, and Puck after the story ends. Write a new last chapter for The Underneath, detailing what the three animals have done since they were reunited.

  5. In the book, the hummingbird is described as an “intermediary” and “messenger,” a being that is able to travel between life and death because it can fly so quickly. Research the mythology of some of the wild creatures in The Underneath—such as snakes, alligators, or hawks—and create a report about one. Illustrate your report with photographs or drawings.

  Turn the page

  for your first look at Keeper, the next novel

  from Newbery Honoree Kathi Appelt.

  Available from Atheneum Books for Young Readers

  “HURRY,” WHISPERED KEEPER to the nighttime sky. She leaned her head back as far as she could and looked straight up. The sugary stars clung to the roof of the night and blinked back at her.

  “Hurry,” she said to the water beneath her tiny boat. The triangular waves brushed against its wooden sides. The dog who sat across from her whined and thumped his tail against the bottom of the boat. “B.D.,” she whispered. “Best Dog.” She reached toward him and rubbed the soft fur behind his ears. After a moment she let go of the dog, clasped her hands in front of her, and tucked them beneath her chin. She looked back up at the starry sky.

  Where was the full moon? Shouldn’t it be up by now? She was counting on the moon to pull the water back, counting on its lantern light to help her see in the dark and lead her to the sandbar only a hundred yards from the beach—especially this moon, blue moon, the second full moon of the month. Dogie had told her that a blue moon was a magic moon, good for wishing, good for praying. But so far it had not shown its creamy face.

  Keeper rubbed the charm around her neck with her fingertips, let it fall against her new cotton T-shirt. The cold of it seeped through the shirt’s fabric, it made a small chill, like a cold dent in her skin, where it rested right against the top of her breastbone. She took a deep breath. The dark air above the pond was thick and heavy on her shoulders, soggy.

  B.D. whined, his voice a small please. Please, can we go home now? Please? For emphasis, he put his right front paw on her knee. Please, please, please? he whined.

  “Best Dog,” she said to him. He was worried about being in the boat this late at night when they should be sound asleep in her room next to Signe’s room.

  He preferred chasing dream bunnies in his sleep to chasing moonbeams in a boat. Keeper patted the paw atop her knee. She hadn’t wanted to bring him along, but she needed him.

  He was her “finder dog.” Over the years, he had found a whole host of missing objects—the odd sock, a misplaced spoon, the tiny key to the lock on Keeper’s diary, one of Signe’s peace-sign earrings.

  He also found other things, like one-of-a-kind seashells and tiny abandoned puppies, including Too, who was adopted by Dogie, their next-door neighbor. He found old coins and dead fish washed up on the beach. He even found shooting stars and tiny geckos, things that didn’t appear to be lost.

  Keeper had always relied upon him to help with finding. And tonight she needed him more than ever. As they tiptoed out the kitchen door, he hadn’t made a single sound to betray her. Somehow he even managed to keep his toenails from clicking on the hard kitchen floor.

  Once outside, he had loped across the grassy lawn right next to her, quiet as a marsh mouse, stepped lightly on the wooden pier so as not to make any noise, then lowered himself down into the boat with her. Having B.D. with her gave her courage, even though she could tell that he was nervous.

  A small sliv
er of guilt rode up her wrist and settled on her tongue. She swallowed it.

  Knee-to-paw, face-to-face, she looked right at him and said a true thing: “I love you, Best Dog.” Then she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, sunk her fingers into his thick, curly fur, breathed in his doggy smell, a mixture of Purina Dog Chow and Palmolive dish soap, vestiges of his dinner and the bath she had given him earlier, added to his own peculiar B.D. smell, something like garlic and sand and honey.

  She looked over his head toward the shore, where their haint blue house stood just yards away. Inside that house her empty bed waited, the cotton sheet shoved to the end of the mattress. And in the next room Signe slept, unaware that her girl and her dream bunny dog were out there. Alone. Together. In The Scamper. Dogie’s boat.

  Thinking about Signe made Keeper wince.

  “We have to hurry,” she told B.D. Then she patted the top of his head, and looked all around her. Looked at the three dark houses perched on the banks of this marshy pond, all cloaked in heavy shadows. She looked at the silhouettes of the sabal palms, where their resident seagull Captain slept in his nest. She saw the faint glow of the oyster shells on the road and heard the rolling breakers of the surf on the other side of the sand dunes.

  “The universe unto itself,” was what Signe called this place. Everyone who mattered to Keeper lived here: B.D. and Signe and Dogie and Mr. Beauchamp and Sinbad and Captain and Too. Everyone except for Meggie Marie.

  For Keeper’s whole entire ten-year-long life, the universe unto itself had been her home, her home with Signe and B.D. and the long-legged sandpipers and the seashells that lined her bedroom window and the shrimp boats just behind the breakers, their nets like butterfly wings dipping into the water, everything she knew and cared about, her home. But today everything had changed and now, seven years after her mother swam away on a star-filled night just like this one, Signe had said, “You don’t understand, Keeper.” Then she buried her face in her hands, her voice thin and narrow. “They’ll take you away.”