How It All Goes Down
- Things are getting weird.
- Pi discovers a botanical oddity: an island made entirely of algae.
- The vegetation is edible. And nourishing. Pi weeps in the shade of a tree.
- Both Pi and RP continue to sleep on the lifeboat (of course, in their respective territories). Each grows healthier and healthier.
- One evening, RP is bounding toward the lifeboat. And, straight for Pi. Pi blows on his whistle three times and RP stops in his tracks, agitated. RP doesn't attack Pi. Instead he jumps into the water and then climbs aboard the lifeboat.
- Pi explores the island. Oddly enough, it's populated by meerkats. And there are freshwater ponds everywhere.
- Pi discovers that saltwater fish get sucked into the freshwater ponds. The meerkats feast on the dead fish.
- RP needlessly mauls lots of meerkats.
- Pi cleans the lifeboat. In the following days, both Pi and RP are noticeably healthier.
- Pi describes the island's relationship to the sea as "Gandhian: it resisted by not resisting" (2.92.71). Perhaps a hint at the island's symbolic function?
- One day, Pi accidentally runs into RP. RP rears up on his hind legs. Pi stands his ground. RP ambles off and then Pi gets out his major weapon: the orange whistle. He actually chases after RP, blowing the whistle. RP bolts.
- Pi decides to reinstate RP's training program. He even gets RP jumping through hoops. Literal hoops.
- Pi decides to sleep in a tree to put more space between him and RP at night. The island's meerkat population scampers up all the trees, including the tree where Pi has made his bed. In the morning, the meerkats leave. This happens every night and every morning.
- One night, Pi sees dead fish and a shark float up to the surface of a freshwater pond. None of the meerkats leave the tree to eat these delectable morsels. In the morning, almost all the fish are gone. Pi can't figure out this mystery.
- Pi wanders deep into the forest (actually, to a tree at the "dead centre"). He notices the tree seems to have fruit. Pi climbs the tree and discovers the fruit is not fruit at all; they're leaves wrapped around human teeth.
- Pi figures out that the island is carnivorous. (At night, the algae turns highly acidic and eats the fish in the ponds; now Pi understands why RP returns to the boat every night.)
- Pi leaves the island. He takes RP with him.