From the moment her parents disappear, Primrose possesses an unshakable inner awareness that they have survived the typhoon and await rescue together on an island. This uncanny recognition of a profound truth that defies common sense is sometimes called intuition or a deep knowing. So certain is Primrose that her parents are alive that she perceives the community’s memorial service for them as being pointless and skips it. Adults in Coal Harbour assume that the loss of her parents is more than Primrose can assimilate and that she is in denial. Miss Honeycut, acting as a counselor, speaks to her class when Primrose is not present and explains that Primrose’s reaction is one of the stages of grief and that, over time, she will begin to accept what has happened. Others in the community hint to Primrose that her parents will not return. One of the things Primrose likes about her Uncle Jack is that, though he does not believe her parents are alive, he never assails Primrose’s belief that they are.

For her part, in an effort to demonstrate that she is not in denial but rather in the know, Primrose questions those authority figures around her about the sort of knowledge she possesses.