How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"So. What's Miss Caroline got to say for herself these days?"
Call's face flamed in pleasure. It was the question he had been bursting to answer. "She—she said, 'Yes.'"
I knew, of course, what he meant. There was no need to press him to explain. But something compelled me to hear my own doom spelled out. "'Yes' to what?" I asked.
"Let's just say," he was eyeing the Captain slyly. "Let's just say she answered her Call." (16.80-83)
Could it possibly get any worse for this girl? Louise is dealing with so much in this moment. Call has just returned, and she's started to realize she might have feelings for him (or feelings for anyone, really), and it's all snatched away from her yet again. Another childish dream shattered by the perfect Caroline.
Quote #8
"You can do anything you want to. I've known that from the first day I met you—at the other end of my periscope."
"But—"
"What is it you really want to do?"
I was totally blank. What was it I really wanted to do?
"Don't know?" It was almost a taunt. I was fidgeting under his gaze. "Your sister knew what she wanted, so when the chance came, she could take it."
I opened my mouth, but he waved me quiet. "You, Sara Louise. Don't tell me no one ever gave you a chance. You don't need anything given to you. You can make your own chances. But first you have to know what you're after, my dear." His tone was softening.
"When I was younger I wanted to go to boarding school in Crisfield—"
"Too late for that now."
"I—this sounds silly—but I would like to see the mountains."
"That's easy enough. Couple of hundred miles west is all." He waited, expecting more.
"I might—" the ambition began to form along with the sentence. "I want to be a doctor."
"So?" He was leaning forward, staring warmly at me. "So what's to stop you?" (17.74-85)
Part of becoming an adult is figuring out what the heck you want to do with your life. During this conversation with the Captain, Louise is finally forced to figure that out. This is the first time we ever hear her admit she might want to be a doctor, though she can't quite commit to it just yet.
Quote #9
Did I see her flinch, ever so slightly? "What do you want us to do for you, Louise?"
"Let me go. Let me leave!"
"Of course you may leave. You never said before you wanted to leave."
And, oh, my blessed, she was right. All my dreams of leaving, but beneath them I was afraid to go. I had clung to them, to Rass, yes, even to my grandmother, afraid that if I loosened my fingers an iota, I would find myself once more cold and clean in a forgotten basket.
"I chose the island," she said. "I chose to leave my own people and build a life for myself somewhere else. I certainly wouldn't deny you that same choice. But," and her eyes held me if her arms did not, "oh, Louise, we will miss you, your father and I."
I wanted so to believe her. "Will you really?" I asked. "As much as you miss Caroline?"
"More," she said, reaching up and ever so lightly smoothing my hair with her fingertips. (18.40-46)
And now, Louise can finally go. All the kid has ever wanted her entire life was for someone to admit she's worthwhile, that she has something Caroline doesn't. Now, her mother finally tells her that she will be missed more than Caroline. This is all she needs to start out on her own.