Erik Sullivan

Quick Facts

• Role: Deceased son of Tova Sullivan; biological father of Cameron Cassmore; secret high-school boyfriend of Daphne Ann Cassmore
• First appearance: In memories and photographs (the mantel “sea cowboy” photo); never appears in the novel’s present timeline
• Age at death: Eighteen
• Key relationships: Tova (mother), Daphne (girlfriend), Cameron (son), Will Sullivan (father), Uncle Lars (taught him to sail)

Who They Are

Erik Sullivan is the novel’s vital absence—the boy who vanishes and, by vanishing, sets everyone else in motion. He is both mystery and memory: a charismatic, high-achieving teenager whose death freezes him in time and traps his mother in a cycle of Grief and Loss. As clues surface, Erik becomes the hinge between hidden histories and hard-won truth, embodying the book’s drive toward Secrets and Uncovering Truth. His legacy ultimately opens the door to repair and renewal, pointing toward Second Chances and New Beginnings.

Personality & Traits

Erik’s personality is reconstructed from the living: Tova’s recollections, classmates’ gossip, and artifacts (a repaired Dala Horse, a class ring). What emerges is a bright, popular kid whose easy confidence masked a private, careful tenderness. He balances captain-of-the-team charisma with nerdy curiosity, and goofy affection with real secrecy—the combination that made him beloved and, later, so hard to fully know.

• Popular and charismatic: Remembered as “a popular kid” with a wide social circle; his ease among peers frames the shock of his disappearance.
• Intelligent and ambitious: Valedictorian headed to the University of Washington; his honors biology project on the hippocampus yields his playful “sea monsters” quip, revealing a curious, creative thinker.
• Athletic, sea-skilled: Captain of the sailing team, trained by Uncle Lars; the “sea cowboy” photo captures his seaworthy confidence and flair.
• Thoughtful but secretive: He hides a serious relationship with Daphne and quietly repairs the treasured Dala Horse he broke—acts that show both caution and deep care.
• Playfully affectionate: Teases Tova about her “Mickey Mouse mole” and imitates it with a marker as a child—silly, intimate, and loving.
• Typically teenage: Sneaking beers and clashing with his mom are ordinary rebellions that humanize him, complicating assumptions about his final night.

Character Journey

Erik’s arc unfolds posthumously as a re-reading of a life. The official story—an apparent suicide after a shift at the ferry ticket booth—never sits right with Tova. As the narrative revisits Erik’s final weeks, Adam Wright’s recollection that Erik was secretly seeing a girl shifts the lens from despair to hidden commitments. The later discovery that Erik had quietly, perfectly repaired the Dala Horse reframes his last argument with Tova; instead of a rupture, it becomes proof he carried his mother’s love with him. When Marcellus finds Erik’s class ring, it unlocks the final secret: he was about to become a father. The tragedy tilts from suicide toward accident, and Erik’s story—once only a wound—bridges Tova to Cameron, forming the nucleus of a new Found and Biological Family. Erik’s journey, then, is the transformation of a loss into a lineage.

Key Relationships

• Tova Sullivan: As Tova’s only child, Erik is the axis of her life before and after his disappearance. Their relationship holds ordinary friction (the Dala Horse argument) and extraordinary love (his careful repair), and when Tova learns the truth, her grief is no longer a closed loop—it becomes the starting point for connection and release.

• Daphne Ann Cassmore: Erik’s secret romance with Daphne adds urgency to his final days and explains the silence that followed. Their hidden intimacy—passionate but cautious—both conceals and creates the future, resulting in Cameron’s conception and the mystery that binds the novel’s timelines.

• Cameron Cassmore: Erik never meets Cameron, yet father and son mirror each other in intellect and temperament. The revelation of their bond catalyzes the book’s climax, turns Erik from a tragic question mark into a living lineage, and offers Cameron a name, a history, and a family.

• Will Sullivan: Erik shares with his father a relaxed, companionable “loafing” energy and a love of sports—an easy domestic comfort that Tova sometimes resented but that signaled a warm father-son rapport. Will’s suspicion that a girl was involved shows how close he was to the truth, even without proof.

Defining Moments

Erik exists in the story as flashes that gradually cohere—each new detail rewriting what came before.

• His disappearance from the ferry: The boat is found with the anchor rope “cut off clean,” leading authorities to label his death a suicide.

  • Why it matters: This ruling shapes three decades of grief and misinterpretation, creating the mystery the novel must unmake.

• The Dala Horse repair: After a heated argument over the broken heirloom, Tova later discovers he had secretly, flawlessly fixed it.

  • Why it matters: It redeems their last memory, revealing Erik’s meticulous love and relieving Tova’s self-blame.

• The class ring discovery: Marcellus locates the ring engraved “EELS” (Erik Ernest Lindgren Sullivan), the crucial link tying Cameron to Tova.

  • Why it matters: It shifts the story from absence to inheritance, solving the central mystery and enabling the family’s reconnection.

Essential Quotes

“Maybe we all have sea monsters living in our brains.”

Erik’s joke about the hippocampus fuses scientific curiosity with maritime whimsy. It prefigures the novel’s blend of oceanic imagery and interior life, and it hints that what terrifies us (the “monsters”) may simply be the unseen workings of memory and mind.

“Erik used to call it my Mickey Mouse mole. He was jealous, I think. He said he wanted one, too. One time, when he was about five, he got ahold of a permanent marker and drew one on his arm, just like mine.”

This memory distills Erik’s affectionate playfulness and childlike mimicry—he wants to be marked by his mother, to belong. In retrospect, the sweetness of this scene intensifies the pathos of his absence and explains why Tova clings to small, tactile proofs of love.

“He was going to sneak some beers from your fridge, as usual.” —Adam Wright

Adam’s casual recollection grounds Erik in the ordinary rhythms of teenage life. The remark undercuts the suicide narrative by presenting a kid planning minor mischief, not a farewell; it nudges the reader toward a more nuanced, accidental reading of that night.

“On Tova’s mantel at home, there’s a photo of Erik…grinning wildly as he straddles the statue’s back… A sea cowboy.”

The frozen image captures Erik’s kinetic charm—confident, showy, seaworthy—and becomes a synecdoche for a life stopped mid-motion. The photo’s exuberance haunts the quiet house, reminding Tova (and us) what was lost and why it still matters.

The anchor rope was “cut off clean.”

That clipped phrase, factual and sterile, becomes the foundation of an official story that misreads a life. As new evidence surfaces, the line stands as a caution: tidy explanations can mask messier truths, especially when grief is asked to settle for certainty.