Jacob Have I Loved Chapter 8 Summary

  • August is a pretty terrible month in Louise's opinion, and this August is no different.
  • Louise and Call have to quit crabbing early every day because of the heat. Good news, though: Call tells the Captain this means they can come by for four hours every day instead of only two.
  • Poor Louise is not liking this situation at all.
  • On top of all the summer misery, Louise finally gets her letter from the song lyrics people. If she'll just send them a check for $25, they'll set her song to music. Turns out, it was all a scam. Total fail.
  • One day at the Captain's house, an orange tomcat wanders by, and the Captain lets out some choice curse words, shocking Call and Louise. Dude's just broken one of the commandments. Whoa.
  • The Captain tells them that there are no rules in the Bible for how you talk to tomcats.
  • This makes Louise burst into laughter. Ha—no rules for tomcats. It makes her think for a second that there are some things that are actually possible on this island. Things like, say, swearing at tomcats.
  • Louise volunteers to take the cat back to the neighbor's house. Louise has always called her Auntie Braxton, but the Captain calls her Trudy. Huh.
  • At Auntie Braxton's house, Louise finds the old woman lying on her floor, covered in cats. It's not a good way to die. Yikes.
  • She rushes back to the Captain, who heads over to the house. Turns out, Auntie Braxton is alive, just passed out—phew.
  • Louise runs to grab her father and some other men, who are able to move Auntie Braxton to the docks.
  • Meanwhile, the Captain comforts Auntie Braxton by telling her that he's Hiram and he's going to take care of her. Oh, there's definitely a story there.