Matt throws his arms into his jacket and walks outside, smelling the fire and getting all warm and fuzzy inside about his plans to make dinner and not eat alone. After waiting months for his family to arrive, they're finally here.
But the last line of the book is the kicker: "Then he would tell them about Attean" (25.35). Time to put your thinking cap on and do some digging. This line tells us gobs about Matt and how he's changed. From this sentence, we learn:
- Matt's friendship with Attean runs deeper than a summer pal. He's the first thing he wants to talk about. Why? Because they are brothers, and because Attean changed Matt's way of seeing the world.
- Matt feels it's necessary to teach his family what he learned from the Indians, which means these lessons aren't just personally important to Matt—he recognizes them as universally important too.
Matt sure has grown up.