How the Penguins Saved Veronica

On Locket Island, Veronica finds herself wondering what became of Giovanni. He disappeared from her life, but she has no desire to try to find him now. She muses, “My thoughts turn to Patrick. What is the nature of the man behind the layers of grime and fug of drugs? Is it possible I have judged him too harshly?” (190). She feels relieved to have shared her diaries with him. At least one other person will know her story.

Out on the rocks, Veronica notices a lone chick without any parents. Terry says they may have died, and the chick will, too, because the other penguins won’t look after it. It isn’t the policy of the research team to intervene in nature. Veronica is indignant at this attitude. “At this moment, all the happy penguins do not interest me. It is this one lost soul who commands all my attention. He is drooping, actually drooping now” (193).

Veronica knows that Terry has a kind nature. “She has just been brainwashed by a couple of stupid men” (193). Veronica tries a new tactic. She suggests that an adorable penguin chick would make a wonderful mascot for the blog and generate more public support. Terry hesitantly agrees to take the chick back to camp and broach the subject with Mike and Dietrich.

As expected, the two men oppose the idea of adopting the foundling. They are interested in the survival of the species, not its individual members. Veronica thinks, “I want to knock their heads together, make them see that a species is its individuals. That individuals are what matter. It is men like these who cause wars” (197). While Mike and Dietrich are opposed, and Terry is ambivalent, Veronica claims the chick as her sole responsibility. She tells Terry that she may help in the capacity of a friend instead of a scientist. Terry agrees, and Veronica christens the chick “Patrick.”

The women place the baby penguin in Veronica’s room, where it nestles in an open suitcase. Cleaning up penguin guano becomes a daily chore. Veronica learns to feed Patrick mashed fish with a syringe, and he takes to the process quite readily. Patrick soon begins to look upon Veronica as his mother and starts exploring the rest of the building. He even comes to recognize his own name. Mike and Dietrich slip him snacks when they think nobody else is looking.

Back in England, Patrick has returned to reading the journals. As the summer of 1941 ends, Veronica and Giovanni continue their love affair. By the end of September, Veronica is stunned to find Giovanni gone without warning. Apparently, his POW unit was transferred elsewhere. Even more alarming is the realization that she is pregnant. By early December, Veronica’s secret is out, and the school expels her. Aunt Margaret doesn’t want to allow her back in the house and arranges to send her to a convent to await the birth of her child. While there, Veronica is forced to do menial laundry chores to earn her keep, and the nuns treat her as a fallen woman.

In early May, Veronica’s son is born. She names him Enzo after Giovanni’s father and dotes on the child from the very start. The diary ends at the beginning of January 1943 with Veronica and Enzo still living at the convent. Veronica hopes that they can be reunited with Giovanni in Italy. After this passage, the diary ends, and Patrick is left to wonder what became of his grandfather. He is now eager to speak to Veronica to hear the rest of her story.

On Locket Island, Veronica enjoys caring for her penguin chick and feels her heart expanding. She is due to leave Antarctica soon and makes an important decision. One evening, she confides her life story to Terry. “It’s as if, regardless of me, the narration has acquired its own current and cannot be quelled until it has reached its conclusion” (226). She says that in February 1943, a couple came to visit the convent. While there, they noticed Enzo and were charmed by him. On March 11, the baby is taken for a routine doctor’s visit. When he doesn’t return, Veronica becomes alarmed. She learns that the couple who visited a month earlier were looking to adopt a baby because they couldn’t have a family of their own. “The nuns said it was for the best. They believed they were doing the right thing” (228).

Terry is stricken to hear that Veronica was forced to give up her child. Veronica thinks, “Terry has no idea what it meant in the forties for a girl to have a baby when she didn’t have a husband. Your life was ruined on every level” (228-29). Soon afterward, Veronica leaves the convent and carves out a banking career for herself. She marries a wealthy man and involves herself in his real estate business. Her husband is a philanderer, and Veronica divorces him after eight years. Because she knows the secrets of his business so well, she receives a generous settlement and goes on to invest in real estate and become wealthy in her own right.

While listening to Veronica’s story, “Terry is blotting her eyes with the end of her sleeve. ‘My heart just goes out to you. You’ve been through so much! But you—you never cry, Veronica’” (231). Veronica says that her father wanted her to be strong. She despises weakness and refuses to give in to her sorrow. After Terry leaves, Veronica is left with her memories of lost family. “How I ache for them, for what could have been. Each of them snatched away from me too, too soon. I feel as if I am being strangled from the inside” (232). Veronica wanders outside because she wants to be alone with the penguins. Nobody in the shelter realizes that she has slipped away.

As she watches the colony, she sees that their togetherness gives their life meaning. She is painfully aware of her own isolation. “A hurricane of grief sweeps through me. And suddenly I’m wailing with the wind and spouting hot tears of sorrow. They burst out of my depths in a violent, gushing torrent. I never dreamed I had so many tears stored up inside” (233-34). Veronica then feels a shooting pain in her chest and collapses to the ground.

Patrick can’t sleep because of all the unanswered questions churning around in his brain. At 6:30am, he switches on his computer to find a message from the penguin people informing him that Veronica has become deathly ill. At work that day, Patrick confides in Gav. He says that if he had the money, he would go to Antarctica to see his grandmother one last time. “She’s my only family. I’ve just found her and I’m about to lose her. There’s a hell of a lot more to her than I realized. And I kind of feel like we have unfinished business” (237). Gav offers to lend him the money for his travel expenses. Since Gav’s own mother died, he came into a substantial inheritance. After only a moment’s hesitation, Patrick agrees.

On Locket Island, Veronica awakens to find herself in her room at the research center. She has trouble remembering names and places, but Terry announces that Patrick is coming for a visit. Terry suggests that they change the penguin’s name so there won’t be two Patricks. Inspired by Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, she suggests “Pip.”

When Patrick arrives on Locket Island, he is surprised to find that Terry is an attractive girl, not a “bloke.” He doesn’t like know-it-all Mike but thinks that Dietrich is a good sort. He learns that Veronica snuck out on her own and collapsed on the ice. A doctor was flown in to examine her. She was suffering from hypothermia and a serious lung infection by the time she was found. After injecting her with antibiotics, the doctor advised against moving her anywhere else. Now that Patrick has arrived, the boat won’t be back for another three weeks. He wants to talk to Veronica, who is still unconscious most of the time, but he doesn’t know what to say. “I just sat there like an idiot. Maybe the fact I took the trouble to come out here is enough to make her feel vaguely better in some way. I’m hoping so” (247).

The story shifts to Veronica’s perspective as she slowly recovers consciousness, but she expects to die soon. “My history imparts no great wisdom, no last words fine enough to go down for posterity. I can only think: Well, what was that all about?” (251). She finally recognizes that Patrick is with her and listens with sardonic amusement as he awkwardly interacts with Pip and Terry.