Chapter 26

Hugo is passed out at Board Street Station, the big train station of La Garra where he is sleeping for the night. He is awakened by a little girl. She says there was a big rain storm a while back and it caused a piece of the train station ceiling to fall on her head. She asks him for candy but he doesn't have any, so she leaves.

Chapter 25

Now we are back at the bar with Hogwild and Hugo. Hugo explains that his machine transmittes a sound that drives people crazy, and he made the machine himself. Hogwild is angry that he got kicked out of school for being creative and doing an extra-credit project. Hogwild gets an idea and says Hugo should come to his office in the morning.

Chapter 24

This is a flashback scene to four months ago, at RINGLEY HIGH SCHOOL. It is a regular school day until everyone starts feeling funny. They are filled with depression and anger. Students and teachers start freaking out and running out or fighting each other. Some kids throw up. The daughter of the mayor (DELIA MUTO) became demented. One teacher runs to the basement and finds Hugo playing a noise on a machine that is lower than human ears can hear.

Chapter 23

Hugo and Hogwild are getting drunk. Hogwild explains he is wooing other ladies not just the security guard. He asks Hugo where he's from and he says FORTALIA. Hugo says he got in trouble back home because of a science project. Hogwild wants to know the story. Hugo says he will tell him but he has to keep it a secret. Hogwild tries to cut his finger so they can be blood brothers but it doesn't work.

Chapter 22

Now we hear a little more about the Embers. Estra Maxie, who was one of the onlookers when Hugo was being interrogated by the police man, is the bartender. She has a pistol. There is a board with the drink menu on it and lights next to the drinks that are available. There is a secret back room called "the mizzen". You call on a phone at your booth to place an order.

Chapter 21

This chapter takes place at the bar called The Embers, though you don't know that until the next chapter. It is just Hugo and Hogwild talking. Hugo is trying to explain what happened with the security guard and that he has no chance. Hogwild says that is all part of the plan. Hugo says he tried to talk her into it and this makes Hogwild upset because that was not part of the plan.

Chapter 20

Hugo takes the letter to the security guard at the bank. She is very hostile and already knows it's from Hogwild and doesn't want it. Hugo tries to convince her that maybe Hogwild is "the one". The security says her "the one" would not be a scary stalker and she alerts the other guards and Hugo runs away.

Chapter 19

Hugo meets HOGWILD on the street corner. Hogwild is taller then Hugo (Hugo is above-average tall). He thinks Hugo is homeless and asks him to deliver a letter in return for wine. Hugo is suspicious but Hogwild explains he is wooing a security guard at the bank and this is part of a big wooing process. Hugo agrees and Hogwild says to meet him at the bar when he is done, even though Hugo is underage.

Chapter 18

Hugo goes into the financial district of the city and looks around. NOTE: he has no shoes, he has been barefoot this whole time so far. There is a poem about the city that I can't quote here. Hugo thinks about making some shoes out of newspapers but can't find any.

Chapter 17

This is mostly Hugo walking into the city. Again it is mentioned that there was a floating city in the sky but then fell down here near the beach, and now that is La Garra where Hugo is walking to. There is a promenade and a giant house with a mysterious figure pacing on the balcony. Hugo thinks about how Cynthia saw him on the TV news and wonders who else saw him. He does not remember being filmed for the news or remember much of anything after getting beat up on the beach. Hugo wishes he had a disguise. He thinks about how he had sex with Cynthia Fiechter.

Chapter 16

Hugo says there's something at the other end of the chain that he would like to have, but he is not sure how to retrieve it since its heavy and at the bottom of the ocean. Then he thinks about someone called THE MAYOR and a murder this person did?

Kiepper says he will stay and guard the chain while Hugo goes and figures out how to get whatever is in the ocean. Kiepper says he's quitting his job at the dairy (Kiepper works at a company called Folly Dairy) and just going to sit and wait, because that is his destiny.

Chapter 15

Kiepper realizes that chooping the chain was not the sword's ultimate destiny and is upset. He has to still carry the burden. He throws the sword in the ocean but knows he will see it again. Hugo buys him a popsicle.

Chapter 14

Kiepper becomes haunted by the sword's bloody history and feels compelled to carry it around with him and hack everything he sees apart. He talks to a phone sex operator. He ends up on the beach, walking towards a group of people, afraid that the sword will make him kill them all but unable to stop, like he is possesed. He walks up and chops Hugo's chain, freeing him.

Chapter 13

The history of the Harmattan, a legendary sword that can cut through just about everything. It all starts in the Middle East or the Sahara Desert, ends up in a biotechnology firm, stolen by an employee and then thrown out a window into a vegetable vendor who gives the sword to his grandsom KIEPPER FRICO on his deathbed. Kiepper takes the sword with him to college, then to La Garra.

Chapter 12

This chapter lists the times Hugo has been to La Garra in the past. One time was a school field trip to see a one-act show. Another time was a field trip to the La Garra Museum of Natural History, where the science teacher takes the class to the basement where they keep unsorted things. The teacher finds a skull in a little cage, and he shakes the cage and the skull screams. He tells the story of this Frenchman in olden times who would bite off people's fingers so they put a cage around his head. But he could still bite little children's fingers and he bit off the fingers of a dignatary's daughter. The dignatary chops off his head and keeps the caged head as a trophy back home even though it screams all the time.

Another time he and some friends went to a strip club for somebody's birthday. Then one time he and his twin sister went there so he could by an expensive microphone and they were both scared by the city. We also hear about MIDNITE THRENODY, a pirate radio broadcast (?) that has become a popular show in the area (I think??)

Chapter 11

Hugo is still chained up, so he follows his chain which goes all the way back to the beach where it all started. He piles up all the chain and sits on it. NOTE: He had this chain attached all the time while he was taken to the hospital and everything?? And then to Cynthia's house?

A guy comes along selling frozen liquor popsicles. He and Hugo talk about ways he could get this chain off his leg. Hugo asks where he is and the man says LA GARRA. Hugo realizes he's only 20 miles away from his home and feels stupid.

Chapter 10

Hugo leaves Cynthia's house and tries to figure out where he is. He put back on the suit he was wearing when he washed up on shore. This suit was his dead grandfather's and we learn that sometimes his grandfather communicates to him through the suit. His grandfather tells him to make a plan and get on with it.

Chapter 9

Back in the present day, Hugo and Cynthia Fiechter have just had sex. Cynthia is upset because now she realizes Hugo is not her dead son after all. Cynthia says he is nothing like Andrew Fiechter and that he should leave immediately, and Hugo leaves. He thinks about his family back home and his twin sister ALLISON is mentioned for the first time. He wonders if they wonder where he is.

Chapter 8

We learn the woman's name is CYNTHIA FIECHTER and she had seen Hugo on the TV news weeks ago when he was rescued from the beach. She screams and rushes to the hospital where he's being held, thinking he is her long-lost son.

Then we hear about her son ANDREW FIECHTER who hated her and joined the Navy and then died in a submarine accident.

Cynthia yells at all the doctors because she thinks Hugo is her son. One doctor feels bad and falls for her womanly charms. He releases Hugo into her custody even though he knows he's not. SPECULATION: Hugo has no ID on him.

Chapter 7

The person who heard his crying on the baby monitor is a woman and she comes running in. She is very concerned and relieved to see that he is awake and OK. She tells him he was at the hospital for three weeks. Hugo remembers being underwater and the woman says he had been in a submarine. Now Hugo is even more confused now because he knows he was never on a submarine in his life.

The woman is very happy Hugo is alive and she takes off her shirt and holds him to her bosom. This makes Hugo think about the time his ex-girlfriend took off her shirt in his bedroom. Hugo decides to "go with the flow".

Chapter 6

We discover that Hugo has been unconscious for three weeks and hear about some of his dreams during that time, and get a psychologist's interpretation of the dreams. Hugo finally wakes up and finds himself in a little attic room. He assumes he is dead and in the afterlife until he sees the chain still around his ankle. He begins to cry and someone hears his crying on a baby monitor sitting next to his bed.

Chapter 5

I guess Hugo passed out again at the end of the last chapter, and then wakes up again but this time in the forest near the beach. Then he passes out AGAIN. Then we hear a conversation between some guys who are looking at him and pulling him away from the beach and forest and seeing the chain around his ankle is still coming out of the ocean with no end in sight.

Then Hugo is awake and being questioned by a police man. We learn more about the policeman: His name is JACK KENYON and he was hired by the sheriff to help patrol the streets. Jack Kenyon was dating the sheriff's daughter but then they broke up and the sheriff felt bad about it. Jack Kenyon wears a policeman's uniform from a costume place even though he was asked not to wear it.

We get a summary of the people who are crowded around Hugo, including ESTRA MAXIE who appears later. Jack Kenyon shakes Hugo's hand and he screams and passes out yet again. NOTE: Someone named BEE THIBAUT is also mentioned and said that we will hear more about her late but so far we have not.