Adrift: Chapters 44–53

by Paul Griffin
A summer job in a beach town turns into a nightmare for a teenage boy and his friends when they are swept out to sea in a stolen boat.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–18, Chapters 19–29, Chapters 30–43, Chapters 44–53

Here are links to our lists for Burning Blue by Paul Griffin.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exhaustion
    extreme fatigue
    So I clamped my eyes shut and forced myself to give into my exhaustion, and I guess I passed out.
  2. barely
    in a sparse or scanty way
    Her eyes barely opened, and she didn’t lift her head from where she was, facedown on the boat’s floor.
  3. reel
    wind onto or off a revolving spool
    He came out with a safety line and latched on to me. We reeled ourselves in, between the crests.
  4. seep
    pass gradually or leak or as if through small openings
    The water seeped in slowly.
  5. bail
    remove (water) from a vessel with a container
    We bailed with our hands, and that was all we could do.
  6. tarnish
    discoloration of metal surface caused by oxidation
    The water was the color of tarnished silver.
  7. bedraggled
    limp, untidy, and soiled
    We caught it with our mouths and laughed at one another, at how ridiculous we looked, three bedraggled kids sticking our tongues out at the sky.
  8. bawl
    cry loudly
    I man-cried, or how I thought a man should cry, which is to say I just made my face look tough and angry when all I felt like doing was bawling for my mom.
  9. ember
    a hot, smoldering fragment of wood left from a fire
    The sky had a mad, haunted glow to it, white embers.
  10. straddle
    sit or stand astride of
    One of the spokes rose a few feet above the water, and we straddled it.
  11. pucker
    become wrinkled or drawn together
    The parts of our legs that stayed in there too long puckered and bled heat into the ocean.
  12. hypothermia
    subnormal body temperature
    Dying of hypothermia at the end of August.
  13. limbo
    in Catholicism, the place of unbaptized but innocent souls
    I started thinking I’d died in the storm, and this was some weird limbo where you didn’t care what happened to you.
  14. jab
    poke or thrust abruptly
    The dehydration cramps wouldn’t stop. My fingers and toes tightened and twitched. A knife jabbed my right kidney again and again, with my heartbeat.
  15. gush
    a sudden rapid flow (as of water)
    I’d never forget the gush of blood that hit the surface when the sharks jerked him down.
  16. despise
    look down on with disdain or disgust
    “Why are you lying, taking the blame for him? You’re covering for him to protect me. So he and I can still be brothers, right? So I don’t totally and completely despise him.”
  17. treachery
    an act of deliberate betrayal
    I didn’t stop him, you jerk! He was my friend. How do you forgive somebody for that kind of treachery? That kind of betrayal.
  18. flimsy
    lacking solidity or strength
    Its wings were wrong, flimsy like cheap cloth.
  19. gouge
    force with the thumb
    I’ll gouge out your eyes.
  20. suicide
    the act of killing yourself
    Okay, here’s the story. Stef died the way she did, JoJo committed suicide with the sharks.
  21. accomplice
    a person who joins with another in carrying out some plan
    At the very least, I was an accomplice. If what I did deserves punishment, then that’s what I want.
  22. account
    a record or narrative description of past events
    Driana’s account, John’s, yours—they all link up perfectly.
  23. dislocate
    put out of its usual place, position, or relationship
    I’d dislocated my shoulder.
  24. fragile
    easily broken or damaged or destroyed
    Everything in the here and now looked weird, too fragile, like it wasn’t supposed to be there.
  25. sham
    something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
    Like if you touched it, it would crumble or end up being a sham, hollow.
  26. gradual
    proceeding in small stages
    Gradually, it all started coming back, the weight of things.
  27. hassle
    annoying inconvenience, trouble, or disturbance
    She’d only cancel the number, and I didn’t want her to go through the hassle.
  28. experience
    an event as apprehended
    It all felt so far away, farther than it should have for a near-death experience just three months in the past.
  29. carnivore
    a terrestrial or aquatic flesh-eating mammal
    I’m a carnivore, from a long line of carnivores going back five hundred million years and who knows how long before that. But since I got back from the boat, I can’t eat anything with eyes, I have no idea why.
  30. intensive
    characterized by a heightened level or degree
    I took an intensive EMT course over the summer and now I’m working with a hospital ambulance.
  31. defer
    hold back to a later time
    I’m telling myself I’m saving money for Yale, but we’ll see. I ended up deferring for a year.
  32. trigger
    a device that activates or causes something to happen
    All the old triggers are there. The ballpark, the elevated train, every time I see some idiot shove some poor guy around. John was right though. Those triggers will be everywhere, anywhere, any time.
  33. thrash
    move or stir about violently
    Still, I’ll never be able to forget the thrashing.
  34. wake
    the wave that spreads behind a boat as it moves forward
    That nightmare drags me in its gritty wake and leaves me broken and thrown, pieces missing.
  35. content
    satisfied or showing satisfaction with things as they are
    He seemed mildly content as he checked his phone and traded a few words with the old man ringing him up at the cash register.
  36. affection
    a positive feeling of liking
    I felt the click, a deep affection, a bond that formed there, but after a couple of months I started to drift away.
  37. agony
    intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain
    I’m with them for half an hour or so, an endless agony for them as they deal with the surprise of what’s unfolding in their minds, the realization that they’re the ones this time.
  38. tragedy
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
    That they’re being dealt tragedy out of the blue, that nothing will be the same.
  39. bustle
    a rapid active commotion
    I feel Dri with me too, as I’m moving through the bustle.
  40. hesitate
    interrupt temporarily an activity before continuing
    You know, now that I think about it, the way he came out of the gas station convenience store, the way he hesitated at the door for half a second, maybe John did see me, but he just kept going.
Created on Thu Jun 02 11:31:55 EDT 2016 (updated Mon Sep 10 15:59:59 EDT 2018)

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