CHAPTER SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

CHAPTER 31

Summary

Adam reaches Rutterburg. He finds the hospital. Adam says that he is glad to be back and that Dr. Dupont is waiting for him, as always. Mr. Harvester, the maintenance man says heÂ’s glad to see Adam is back. He sees the wise guys, Whipper, Dobie and Lewis.

Inside Adam smells the normal scent of lilac--Dr. Dupont tries to keep the hospital homelike. He hears the growling dog, of whom he is almost too tired to be afraid. His name is Silver. He sees Arthur, the fat perspiring man. Adam is nervous he will see Junior Varney who is always waiting to steal his bike.

The doctor takes Adam to his room, where he gives him his medicine and they sing The Farmer in the Dell. Inside the box Adam has been carrying in Pokey the Pig. The doctor tells him to rest a while and calls him Paul. Adam knows he is not Paul, but he will always be the cheese.

CHAPTER 32

Summary

This section is a taped report of the investigation with Adam. It is apparently a government tape. The tape states that Subject A (Adam) gave consistent statements to his previous two. This is apparently the third year they have questioned him. He gave negative results, even when they drugged him. The tape confirms AdamÂ’s parents are dead.

The person on the tape (T, or Brint) advises that Personnel # 2222 (Grey) be reinstated from his suspension. T says that there is only circumstantial evidence that Grey contacted the people that murdered AdamÂ’s parents (their Adversaries) and told them the familyÂ’s whereabouts. Grey removed Louise from the scene of the crime and put Adam in the institution with no involvement from local authorities. He also pursued AdamÂ’s father and confirmed his termination by the Adversaries. T believes that Grey acted within policies of the agencies basic procedures. T recommends Adam stay in the institution until termination procedures are approved, or his condition be sustained until he obliterates.

CHAPTERS 30 - 32

Notes

It is best to look at these chapters all together because they comprise the climax and outcome of the plot. This plot is unique in that it has three distinct parts: The present tense Adam riding his bike; the present tense conversations between Adam and Brink; the past tense recollections of AdamÂ’s life. In these concluding chapters we find separate climaxes for the present tense Adam and the past tense Adam and the tapes.

The past tense story reaches climax first: it is when the family is attacked by the car on the side of the road. The climax of present tense Adam is his arrival at the hospital, when it is apparent that he is a regular resident. We learn as he walks through the halls, that he never really was on a journey at all. He was simply riding his bike around the hospital grounds. As he sees different people from the hospital it becomes apparent that he has created all of the characters from his adventure--similar to The Wizard of Oz.

The climax of the tapes comes at the very end of the book: we find out Adam was placed in the facility and medicated to produce his current condition. Agent Grey was behind the murder of his parents. It seems that, like AdamÂ’s parents suspected, Grey did not believe AdamÂ’s father was giving him all of the information he knew. Adam was placed in the institution and drugged to find out what he might know. The government plans to kill Adam next.

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