Sam knows he played with the boat when he was younger. Later that night, Sam climbs back up to the attic and opens the trunk. As she reads the story, memories begin to resurface in Sam’s mind about struggling in water.
It says that Sam disappeared in a boating accident. They manage to unlock the box, and Caroline reads the clipping. A few days later, when Mack’s grandfather is away on business, Sam and Caroline sneak up to the attack. His mind can probably remember more than he believes it can, if he’ll just concentrate. She also encourages him to think hard about his past. Sam tells Caroline about the newspaper clipping, and she agrees to help him find answers. Sam has the feeling he has heard the story before and that he remembers the river, too. She tells an old Iroquois legend about the creation of islands floating in a great river.
The celebration ends with Anima telling a story, as she does every night, but this time, Sam’s grandfather seems upset at her choice. But Sam’s grandfather gives him the best present of all: a plane for smoothing wood, which has been passed down in the family. Onji gives Sam an oversized T-shirt advertising his own deli. Anima gives him a book about woodworking that uses more pictures than words for directions. Onji makes Sam’s lunch for school every day, and Anima brings them dinner every night. Their friends Onji and Anima, who own the deli and the Indian restaurant in the same building as his grandfather’s woodworking shop, also help him celebrate. Sam celebrates his birthday with his grandfather. Sam proposes that they build the model out of wood, using the tools in his grandfather’s woodworking shop. He gets his chance when their teacher pairs them together for a school project to build a medieval castle. He decides to ask Caroline, a new girl in school, for her help. Sam’s imagination begins to run wild: What if his grandfather isn’t really his grandfather? What if he was kidnapped? He doesn’t fully believe it, but he sets his mind to finding someone who will help him solve the mystery. He does make out that the headline claims Sam was missing, and that his last name used to be Bell. Unfortunately, not only is most of the story hidden inside the box, but Sam is dyslexic, unable to read more than a few rudimentary words. A picture in the clipping is of Sam, when he was about 3 years old. Instead, Sam finds an old metal box with a piece of a newspaper hanging out of it. On the night before his 11th birthday, he climbs out of the house he shares with his grandfather, Mack, and shimmies up to the attic in search of his birthday presents. But for some reason, Sam is afraid of it. The number 11 should be one of Sam MacKenzie’s favorites after all, it’s the date of his birthday.
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