21. The Baptism. In Sophie’s next journal entry, she describes how she, Cody, and Brian all went to a boat-building shop owned by a man who specializes in using fiberglass. Brian comments on how the shop owner’s work makes Sophie’s look mediocre, but she shrugs it off. Brian then asks: “You don’t like me, do you?” Sophie denies not liking Brian, but Cody upsets Brian by explaining that certain personality traits he has can be irritating. Brian storms off.
Later, the crew of The Wanderer goes to a baptism for Frank’s grandson. When Sophie sees the people being baptized get dunked into the holy water, she starts getting woozy. “Amazing Grace” is playing in the background, and this startles her too—she wonders where she’s heard it before, and thinks of a funeral. At the post-baptism feast at Frank’s house, Sophie can’t stop thinking about the people getting dunked into the water. At the end of the journal entry, she says that her boat family is starting to get “touchy and nervous”—the anticipation of leaving Grand Manan and sailing across the ocean is starting to grate on their nerves.
The tension Sophie and Cody have with Brian reaches a new peak here, as Brian realizes that the other two don’t enjoy his obsession with organization or his constant seriousness. Cody’s decision to admit that Brian annoys him shows how he’s been waiting for the chance to say something, while Sophie doesn’t want to hurt Brian.
The baptism ceremony seems to trigger Sophie’s forgotten memory of her parents’ funeral, as well as her general anxiety about drowning. Seeing people being forced into and held under water, in tandem with hearing the music played at her parents’ funeral, it seems, makes some part of Sophie re-experience anxiety she’s felt in her past. Since we later learn that her parents drowned at sea, it makes sense that this would be a very triggering experience.