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Chapter 55 begins with Kyle’s return from the ‘above’. Everyone is extremely angry and crowds around him, but Jeb clears them out of the way. Sharon and Maggie, who still haven’t gotten over their hatred of the souls, continue to glare at Kyle. Jeb has a few words with Kyle, and then a little figure behind him pops her head out. Jeb stands in front of Kyle and the unnamed girl and tells people to get out and go work on his cantaloupe crops.
The humans get over the situation pretty quickly and all go about doing whatever it was they were doing before the return of Kyle. Jared, Jamie, and Ian stay behind with Wanderer. They all grab her hand…awkward, yet sweet.
Kyle introduces them to “Sunny” or “Sunlight Passing Through the Ice”. Like Wanderer when she was first brought to the caves, Sunny is scared. But unlike Wanderer, she’s holding onto Kyle for dear life. Wanderer asks her some questions and we find out that Sunny lived on the Bear planet. Jamie is told to go to school, leaving the adults behind to sort this new situation out. As they go to see Doc, Wanderer muses over how strange it is to see Kyle so…nice and caring. She reasons that it’s because of Sunny. Even though it’s not “Jodi”, it’s the closest thing that he’s going to get. The humans go see Doc and the Healer, who is also freaked out to be in the caves. She still doesn’t remember her name. When Sunny sees the cryotanks, she starts freaking out. “I don’t want to go! I want to stay with you!” she tells Kyle. Kyle is in total distress, not thinking that she/it would be like this. The three of them branch off from the Doc, the Healer, and the rest of the humans, and in private, Wanderer asks Kyle why Sunny is so scared. He tells her the story of how he went to find her. He snuck into her room and snatched her up, but she didn’t scream or protest. She simply stared at him, then said, “You’re Kyle.” Sunny then tells Wanderer that she used to dream about Kyle (via Jodi’s memories), and when he came to take her away, she thought she was just dreaming again.
Wanderer then asks Sunny what other planets she has lived on. It turns out that she’s only lived on the Bear planet and Earth, which she likes very much. Wanderer suggests the Flowers planet and then we get Sunny’s reply “I don’t want to be a plant“. Wanderer tries to suggest other planets, but Sunny doesn’t care for any of them. She doesn’t want to be far, or away from Kyle, for that matter. It’s somewhat hopeless, so Wanderer moves on to the next important question: Is Jodi still in there? Sunny doesn’t really understand what Wanderer means, only leading Wanderer and Kyle to believe that Jodi isn’t there like Mel is. Wanderer reasons that it seems the more time you spend as a human before you become a host, then better chance you have to make a “recovery”. “Is 21 years enough?” Kyle asks. “I guess we’ll find out” is Wanderer’s reply.
Sunny starts to freak again about leaving. She states that it’s not fair that she has to go when Wanderer gets to stay. Wanderer consoles her by telling her that she’s going too, and that maybe they’ll leave together. Wanderer’s words are followed by one big, “WHAT?“. And it comes from Ian who has no doubt just heard what Wanderer plans to do.
