The Wishing Game

On the last day of the contest, Lucy reminisces about her childhood with her grandparents and realizes that though her parents didn’t love her, her grandparents did. In addition, she understands that a biological relationship to a child isn’t necessary to be a good parent, and she resolves that when she sees Christopher again, she’ll make him the same promise she always has: that she’ll find a way for them to be a family. Hugo takes Lucy to the library, where the other contestants wait for Jack. When he arrives, he tells them how proud he is of them before initiating the final game. They must answer a question for five points and the possibility of winning his unpublished book. He asks what the two words on page 129 of his book The Secret of Clock Island are, and the three contestants rush to contact their family and friends for help. Lucy calls Mrs. Bailey’s house, hoping to reach Christopher.

The novel changes to Christopher’s perspective. He’s packing his belongings in the new bag he was given for his move to his new foster home. The couple who would be fostering him is older, and Christopher hopes that they’ll be welcoming to Lucy, so that he might have a mother and grandparents. As he goes to find a box for his Clock Island books, he hears the phone ring. He sees Lucy’s name flash on the phone display, and he hesitates, missing the call. Seconds later, the phone rings again, and Christopher braces himself to answer the phone, remembering that only brave children get their wishes.

The text then returns to Lucy’s perspective. She’s proud and surprised that Christopher has overcome his fear, and she quickly asks him to find the two words on page 129 of The Secret of Clock Island. Only a minute is left, and Christopher scampers to find the book. With seconds left, he gives her the answer: “I win.”

The text describes the content of The Secret of Clock Island. A girl named Molly runs from her orphanage to Clock Island. Her wish is to remain with the Mastermind on the island, and instead of participating in his riddles and challenges, Molly simply asks an endless number of questions. He can’t make her face her fears because, after losing her parents, she only fears going back to the orphanage. She wins the staring contest he imposes on her. Page 130 states that the Mastermind let her win.

Christopher asks Lucy whether she won; she didn’t. She gave the answer a second too late and is devastated. Hugo takes the phone away from Lucy as Christopher keeps asking her what happened. Hugo tells Christopher that Lucy didn’t win first prize but did win second prize, a big shark painting made by Hugo that Christopher will surely love. Hugo tells him that he should hold onto it for a few years because it will surely help pay for his college tuition one day. Beside him, Lucy sits and cries.

As Lucy packs her suitcase, Hugo keeps her company. They talk about the painting he gave Christopher as a pretend second-prize gift. Lucy refuses to sell the painting for her own purposes, rather leaving it for Christopher to use as he sees fit, even if it means passing on the money she needs for his adoption. As Hugo comforts her, she tells him that she doesn’t plan on giving up and will take a second job. She refuses his offer to lend her money but requests a favor: a drawing of a shark she can give Christopher as they wait for the painting to be shipped to him. When Hugo leaves to get his sketchbook, Jack comes into the room. He gives her a well-worn copy of The House on Clock Island but tells her that the book isn’t his gift but merely represents his gift: Jack is giving Lucy the actual house on Clock Island. He then asks her if she still wants to be his sidekick, as she did when she was a young teen.

Jack reaffirms that he wishes to give her the house and tells her he’d love to have Christopher live with them too. He offers to help her with the adoption process, and Lucy begins to refuse, but Jack gives her a bundle of letters Christopher has been sending him for several months in which he expresses his desire for Lucy to adopt him. Jack tells her that he has already begun the adoption process through his attorney, Ms. Hyde, who then appears and asks Lucy for a moment of her time later to review the paperwork. Jack also reassures her about Hugo’s fate: Whether he decides to leave or stay will be entirely of his free will since Jack won’t be left alone. In addition, Jack promises that Hugo will inherit the island when Jack passes on, but Lucy will keep the house. He asks her again if she’ll stay with him, and she accepts.

The text states that the Mastermind, or Jack, has let Lucy win and cites it as a passage in The Secret of Clock Island.

The novel moves forward to three months later. Jack and Hugo are waiting for Lucy and Christopher to disembark from their flight. Jack is nervous to meet what Hugo calls his honorary grandson for the first time. Hugo accuses Jack of masterminding his and Lucy’s budding relationship, which Jack denies. However, he apologizes for keeping Hugo in the dark about the contest. Hugo then tells Jack that he received a thank-you card from Dustin, and when Jack is vague about the reason behind Dustin’s gratefulness, Hugo realizes that Jack not only paid off Dustin’s student debt but also arranged for his new book launch to occur at Melanie’s struggling bookstore to boost her sales and that he found a second cousin of Andre’s dying father who could donate a kidney. Hugo eventually asks him why he started writing again, and through a riddle, he answers that Hugo was the reason. When Jack began to see flyers for apartments in New York City, he realized that Hugo’s moving away would separate them, and Jack considers Hugo his son. Hugo then realizes that the whole contest was a ploy to keep him from leaving by distracting him with a project. When Lucy arrives with Christopher, Jack and Hugo are holding a banner to welcome them. Christopher finally meets Jack and takes to him immediately.

The novel recaps the events of the three previous months for Lucy, including how she became a local celebrity and how she met with a family attorney. Within two weeks, she rented a small house and received approval to foster Christopher. Life with Christopher was wonderful but tinged with the hardships of his unresolved trauma and the usual misbehaviors of a seven-year-old, which only confirmed that he looked to her as his real mother.

Back in the present, Lucy goes to visit Angie in the hospital as Hugo waits in the hallway. Angie only has a few months to live, and Lucy regrets the time they wasted not knowing one another. Angie admonishes Lucy for visiting on the same day she arrived in Portland and tells her to leave and come back once she’s settled. Angie tells her that she’s at peace with her situation, and Lucy gives her a gift from Christopher, his favorite hammerhead shark toy, which Lucy gave him months earlier. Lucy then leaves, crying, and after Hugo comforts her, the four of them (Jack, Hugo, Lucy, and Christopher) all head to Clock Island. On the ferry ride, Hugo comments on how Jack and Christopher look like grandfather and grandson, and Jack tells Christopher about the sharks in the water. When they arrive at the house, Christopher is amazed by his room, Hugo uses the distraction to give Lucy a copy of Jack’s new book, A Wish for Clock Island. The cover depicts a boy that looks like Christopher and a woman that looks like her. The story is a continuation of Astrid’s story as an adult, which Hugo modeled after Lucy. As the whole family goes outside, Jack shows off the newly completed train network to the City of Second Hand. Christopher screams in delight, and the adults join him in his unadulterated joy.