Chapter 104

Allison talks to a drunk person who has no pants on. It's possible that he remembered seeing Hugo, but it's hard to get a good answer out of him. He mentions "THE UNKILLABLE" and that makes Allison think of an old Hull Family trick, but who knows what that refers to.

And then they get distracted because something, a wierd-shaped person?, walks out of the ocean and starts beating up the fishermen. Everyone is spooked and runs except Allison. She follows him/it into a restaurant and knocks on the door. She hears someone use the name "Dr Manz" and then she opens up the door. That is the end of the chapter.

(If you remember, we met Dr Manz before. He was that doctor with the robots who lived underwater and who tried to heal that fish bite that Hugo got. And he helps people who want to hide from Glenedig. And Hugo had a crush on his voluptous secretary.

Chapter 103

OK this chapter made me a little uncomfortable. Allison decides that she's not going to go home, she's going to keep searching for Hugo. She didn't leave a note for the parents or anything, but it's like punishing them for kicking Hugo out. She gets the feeling that he's in the ocean, or something, so she goes down to the beach. She remembers the time that she almost drowned and Hugo saved her.

She goes and talks to a bunch of crusty pirate-types to try to find info if they've seen Hugo. They give her very bad sass of a sexual nature, and then she does something pornographic that I will not mention. Not sure why she does it. Then she leaves and finds some other guy to talk to.

Chapter 102

In the middle of the night, Allison gets into her car, called THE GORGON, and goes out searching for Hugo around town, at the usual spots where he hangs out. [Obviously she doesn't find him, since we know he's in the other town.]

Then when she's going through the drive-thru to order some chicken, she realizes that this is the first time ever that Hugo is wrapped up in something that she's in no way involved in, and it causes her to shed a few solitary tears.

It's just like George Lazenby at the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Sorry, I don't know why but I have James Bond on the brain today.

Chapter 101

Well, not sure what the hold up was but we're back. This chapter is told from the perspective of Allison Hull, Hugo's sister. She's pretty annoyed that Hugo took off and is basically just in a huff about it. And then that night she has a dream about pirates and she wakes up thinking that Hugo is dead.

Let's All Go To The Lobby

Chapter 100

Whoa Chapter 100 and WHAT A DOOZY!!!

We're back at the present time in the hotel room with China & Hugo. We learn that Glending wants China to see what the current status of Hugo's investigation is, and keep him off the streets for a few days. So I guess that's why he's chained up, but I wonder why they want him off the streets. I guess just to stay out of the way while the real people work their magic or something. Anyways there's a knock and some big huge woman walks in. Friend of China's, we don't learn her name (probably the author's mistake) but there's intimations that they might be lesbians together or something. She brings a recorded message for them to lesson to. It's a message that was sent to Glending from someone who purports to be working with Margaret Ball. The deal is that she wants all her sister stenographers released unharmed or else she will spread copies of the paper far and wide.

1) So Margaret had the document the whole time and Hugo has been on a wild goose chase! Figures.

2) And furthermore Hugo recognizes the voice of the woman on the recording as his sister! Allison! I was like Whoa, wah?!?

So that's the end of part 1. Which is kind of scary, there's probably at least 100 or 200 more chapters, that means. This is definitely the longest thing I have ever read. Too bad I'm not getting a school credit or something.

Chapter 99

The names of the girls are: ANABEL, CHANDRA, KAREN, LILY, MAIA, MARGARET, PENNY, and they will each be in charge of taking notes on a certain subject. They learn the ropes and basically the system works perfectly, just like Glenending had hoped. But because the girls are isolated from the rest of the world, they sort of have some weird ideas about how the world works. They develop this idea of a person named ROSA, who they think of as their mom, out in the world, someone who cares about them. Sort of like their God or Mary in a way, I guess. (Just interpreting.)

So the girls grow up, and along the way Anabel commits suicide, and then the girls start developing The Plan. We don't know what that is yet.

(I tried rearranging the girl's first initials into an anagram of some kind, but it did not work out as anything in English. I figure this book must have some secret codes in it somewhere, but I don't know.)

Chapter 98

So the girls go through training and learn what they're going to do. They're given very fancy digs in the building, told they can never leave, but can basically have anything else they'd ever want. Two girls decide to leave, but the rest stay. If you remember that glassed-in fancy room with the tree that was mentioned earlier, their rooms are below that.

Also we learn that the girls will each get a penpal out in the regular office with whom they can correspond. Hogwild is one of the girl's penpals at some point.

It occurs to me that an easy way to summarize these chapters is to just read the first paragraph, skim for anything in blockquotes, and then read the last paragraph and boom there you go. But I am reading the whole thing.

Chapter 97

China is stressed about where she's going to find these stenographer chippies. Two paragraphs later she's figured it out and is rounding them up. She brings in 18 girls to interview with Glendenining and DR. ELEANOR MATHIAS, the staff psychologist. They do some tests, teach the girls the code they'll be writing in. The code is taught to them by someone named JERRY. A couple of the girls steal away during the night but the ones who are left the following morning are ready for work.

Chapter 96

We now travel back in time. To a place when Glendenning has a meeting that goes horribly wrong. He's all embarrassed. The secretary suggests and he agrees that he should have a paperless office. Everything he says will be automatically recorded and transcribed, so he never has to remember anything or search through papers to find something ever again.

So they set up a bunch of microphones, but then he wasn't sure who to entrust with the recording of everything. So an employee named SEAN BITTMAN recommended he talk to China Sweet. Apparently she had procured underage girls for the company in the past? Um hello creepy. But basically the idea is to staff the recording booth with young underpriveledged girls, a completely child labor kind of situation.

Hugo, what kind of nonsense are you mixed up in, I wonder!

Also we learn that China Sweet's real name is MAXINE ESTRA. Which is semi-confusing, because we already met a character named Estra Maxie. Coincidence I think not? Or did the author just forget and is running out of ideas. I don't know.

Chapter 95

So then China & Hugo are at a old sea-side hotel called The Ballast. Hugo is chained to the radiator, I'm not sure why. China washes her face (sorry, I have no clue what is important and what isn't, and what will be important later, so I'll just mention the random details) but Hugo does not see her face, and then she talks about how she was hired to find Margaret Ball. If you remember she was the window-paper-dropper. China has been looking for Margaret for longer than Hugo has been on the scene. And it seems that China originally introduced Margaret to Glendenig, or got her hired, or something. I don't know.

Chapter 94

Great, I'm officially behind. Curse the day ere I ridiculed Leona! Ha. I'm from jolly old london. ANyways.

in Chapter 94 China Sweet is driving Hugo somewhere. They talk about fate, which Hugo calls "ghostfamily." And they talk about whether or not we each have ONE significant thing that we have to to do during our life. It's basically a philosophical debate that I think China wins, Hugo never really has much of an opinion on anything.

We find out that China got the message that Hugo had sent to Mr Glendenning. She works for him too. She was worried that Hugo was going to spill secrets to the Rustic people with the spider, so she ran off to save him. Of course I'm not sure Hugo has any actual secrets to spill, but whatev.

Chapter 93

This is a very short chapter in which China Sweet briefly comforts Hugo and then orders him into her truck. She takes him somewhere and then has him handcuff himself to the radiator. You have to read it a few times before you're sure that's what really happened.

Chapter 92

Hugo and Hogwild agree to meet up later. Hugo sits on a bench in the park and all of a sudden there is a big SPIDER on his hand! And then there is a woman sitting on one side of him and a man on the other. They tell him not to touch it or it will basically maim him for life. Through clever banter between the man and the woman we learn that it's something they created in a lab. These are the same people who sent that thing, whatever it was, to bite his stomach earlier. They will get the lab spider off him but only if he tells them something about the missing piece of paper. But Hugo is in a tight spot because he doesn't really no much more than they do. It looks like curtains...

But then! Suddenly! The spider is gone, and it's on the throat of the man sitting next to him, biting him his neck! It's CHINA SWEET! If you remember she's the one who makes the really sharp ninja stars out of regular, lined notebook paper. She saved the day and comes over and tells the guy to go to the hospital. Very exciting! I believe this is the third appearance of China Sweet.

Chapter 91

Phew, low whistle. There was a lot of monologues in this chapter. VERY BASICALLY, Hogwild is bummed and hurt that he didn't know about the secret stuff Hugo is in on. Then there's an extended metaphor of them talking about sports trophies, and that goes into them talking about how they want to feel important/immortal, and by the end I guess it's decided that Hogwild should help Hugo find the document, and it'll be an important thing for them to go together so they can be men, or whatever.

That is the way slim overview, right there.

Also the urchin gets sick on ice cream and wanders off, which is good b/c everytime I read the word "urchin" I had "Paradise City" by Guns & Roses in my head for the rest of the day. Just an urchin living under the street, I'm a tough case that's hard to beat, I'm your charity case so buy me something to eat. WHOA maybe that song was the inspiration for this whole chapter. Leona, would back me up but she's on the riverboat playing Keno this week.

Chapter 90

OK, this was a pretty cool chapter. Hogwild takes Hugo and the urchin to a secret restaurant. It's hidden inside a department store. It's pretty cool how they get into the place but I won't go into it. Just know that it was complicated and I liked it. When they get there Hogwild orders the fanciest sundae possible for the urchin, and only a small non-alcoholic beverage for Hugo. Should have been the other way around if you ask me.

Chapter 89

In this chapter Hugo leaves Sal's and is threatened by a nameless young punk. It quickly becomes clear that Hogwild has hired this kid to find out what Hugo is working on. I guess his interest was piqued on account of an article in the newspaper where Fedemma Global denied that they'd lost a paper and had no idea who Hugo was or why he was saying that. So maybe Hogwild is mad that Hugo is working on the d/l and wants to feel privvy to that information. Hugo's hungry and they agree to get something to eat, and they have to bring the kid. And Hugo will explain about the Fish House.

Does that explanation make sense? It was kind of a confusing chapter. And yet not much happened. That's probably the sign of a good author at work.

Chapter 88

Goodness, that Hugo sure has a crush on Jane, the receptionist. In this episode he comes out to her about his sound recording project that he's working on, and says that he'd like to include her voice as part of it. All the while he's just thinking about how he'd like to make time with her. Aww. Since everything related to Fedema Global is already being recorded all the time, she says it won't be a problem for her to get him 5 minutes of their conversation, so he can have Jane saying 3 certain words on his recording. I won't say which 3 words exactly b/c that would be a quote from the story. Jane also says that she'll help get Hugo's belongings up off the bottom of the ocean, and she certainly didn't need to do that, so I wonder if she's down?? If you feel me. And then finally he gives her a message to get to Mr Glendennig that basically says "I'm making some progress on the case even though you told me not to work on it. (Total paraphrasing.)

Chapter 87

I guess the conversation from Chapter 86 just ended, and then a robot (ERNINE) shows Hugo out. Hugo is well chuffed that he has a new lead on the case. He runs back through the underwater hallway and then back up the ladder and when he emerges in the bathroom there is a woman on the toilet. She (MAGGIE SUWANNAKINTHO) pitches a fit and Herman Kim almost beats Hugo up by accident but then realizes who he is. He teaches Hugo the secret knock so that won't happen again. Hugo then asks Herman Kim if he knows Margaret Ball. He doesn't answer but the bartender tells Hugo not to ask about Archivists. If you don't remember who Margaret Ball is (I sure did not!), she's mentioned later on down this page, just do a search.

And along those same lines, just in case it's important later I'll describe about Maggie: she's kind of down on her luck and working as a sort of highly specialized call girl, employed by Fedema. She's sad.

It's interesting that we don't learn the bartender's name. Is she the only person I can think of who we haven't learned their name? We met another bartender before, Estra Maxie if you remember.

Intermission: New Story!

Since there's been a bit of a lag lately in new chapters (not hating, merely stating), I decided to post some of my own writing that I've been working on! For this story I am combining two of my favorite passions: Chokeville and Newsradio. For those of you that don't know, Newsradio was basically the funniest show ever, until Phil Hartman died. In fact most of my writing tends to be about Newsradio in some way. So right now I'm working on a story about what if WNYX was in La Garra, and Hugo gets a tip about the missing page that leads him to the radio station offices. Anyways, I hope you like the story, I'm taking a big risk by posting it! And it goes a little something like this:

--

[SCENE: Dave's office. DAVE is working busily at something.]

DAVE (calling loudly): Beth? Can you come in here?

[BETH leans into the room, hanging from the door jamb]

BETH: Yeah Dave?

DAVE: Were you able to make those copies I needed? I have 20 more minutes to get this financial report done.

BETH: Almost, Dave. Matthew's really tying up the copier today.

Dave (gives Beth a look): I thought we agreed Matthew wasn't allowed near the office equipment anymore.

Beth: Well remember how you said you didn't want Matthew to spend all day drawing unicorns when he should be working?

Dave: Yeah?

Beth: Well instead he drew just one really awesome unicorn and is photocopying it like five hundred times.

Dave: ...

Beth: I think he wants to wallpaper the break room with them. Anyway, that guy is still outside, waiting to talk to you.

Dave: What guy?

Beth: Hugo.

Dave: Hugo who?

Beth: Dave this really isn't a good time for knock-knock jokes, he's been waiting for like an hour. Should I send him in?

Dave: Well, despite the fact that this is the first I've heard of it and I'm incredibly busy, sure, why not.

Beth: I'll get him.

Dave: And in the future, if there's a visitor here to see me, could you make sure to actually tell me about it?

Beth: Mmm, pretty sure that's not in my job description, Dave, but I'm happy to let it slide this time. Let's try not make a habit of it though.

[BETH exits. HUGO enters]

Dave (standing up to shake Hugo's hand): Hi, Hugo, is it? Dave Nelson, news director.

Hugo: Hugo Hull, sir. Icewater to my friends. Problem-solver extraordinaire.

Dave: Well what can I do for you...Icewater?

Hugo: Maybe some coffee. I'm here because--

[MATTHEW rushes into the office, holding a large stack of papers, a few of which cascade of onto the floor.]

Matthew: David, I cannot work in these conditions!

Dave (momentarily flummoxed as he struggles to switch gears): Uh, what conditions would those be?

[In the background, BILL strolls casually into Dave's office dangling a piece of paper distastefully between two fingers. It has a picture of a unicorn on it.]

Matthew: David, our office is too sterile, too blah, officey, and I am not the only who who feels stifled by the corporate--

Bill (oblivious to the fact that Matthew is speaking): Dave, are we just going to let Spaz here turn our place of business into a 3rd-grader's bedroom? No offense, Matthew. Should I start wearing ponytails and writing my name in capital letters, or are we going to deliver the news here? I for one cannot work in these conditions.

Dave (Looking down at the report on his desk): Well, apparently no one can.

--

Anyways, that's all I've got so far. I'll probably add more later if I get some good comments in the comments section. Thanks for reading! Leona, do you like Newsradio?

Chapter 86

Big breakthrough in the case! I feel like we are back in hot pursuit!

Dr Manz isn't really friendly with Glendennig, and he mentions to Hugo that he has helped people in past who want to hide out from Glendennig. Such as the file-thrower!!! And he calls the file-thrower a "her." So Hugo wants to explore that information and find out from the doctor, but the doctor wants to hear more about the fish that bit Hugo when he was drowning. Apparently the fish had a note attached to it, from Rustic Industries, a competitor of Feddema Globals'. So here we are: Hugo wants more info about the file-thrower-outer, Dr M wants more info about the biting note fish. A regular Mexican stand-off.

Chapter 85

So now we're inside Dr Manz's room/house/laboratory/whatever. It's very messy. They go to a ballroom filled with just a ton of crap. Hugo asks the good doc to take off the metal cuff that is still attached to his leg. Dr M uses a special saw to cut it, then a robot named NUMBER EIGHT actually bends it back and pulls it off. Then Hugo reminds the doc that he also has the fish bite that needs looking at. Dr Manz stabs it with a knife. Gently, I guess. then gives him two things to drink, whiskey and something yellow. Hugo has to take a sip but make sure not to swallow. Hugo asks where he should spit it out. Dr Manz is not specific but tells him not to spit on any books or papers. I guess we should stay tuned to the exciting conclusion in Chapter 86: Where Hugo Decides To Spit, After Carefully Weighing All The Options.

And might I add there was NOTHING in this chapter about Hugo having to find that lost piece of paper which I thought was the whole point of the story! WTH!

Chapter 84

A robot answers the door! His name is CHAMP. Then we quickly meet KARL MANZ, who has Hugo come in. The end!

So, yeah.

Chapter 83

Well it sure did not take me long to fall completely behind. No wonder it stills says that this website is by Leona Pankey up above. I'm sure she'll give me what-for if she sobers up at all today.

Now we meet JANE, the receptionist. Hugo tells her that he got bit by something in the ocean (did we already learn this? or is it new? I admit I'm getting a bit confused on account of the dribs and drabs nature of this endeavour).

Jane sends Hugo directs him to the office of Dr Manz. To get there you go down through a trap door and then through a glass tunnel under the ocean. Hugo seems to enjoy this and just stays there for a while and fantasizes about taking Jane on a date there. Keep dreaming, buddy, even in this briefest of character sketches we can tell she's out of your league! Then he continues on and comes to a metal door with a, I'll just quote it and click the "i" button: NEVER MIND! basically there's a design on the door of a few triangles :

I have nothing else to say about this chapter. Wait not true. The title of this chapter is "Door Four." and in college I worked at an off-brand sub shop called Door Four Subs. Because it was in a round building that had 7 doors, and our store was located inside the fourth door. So that reminded me of that. A special closeness with this chapter, I guess.

Chapter 82

Oooooooh, ok! I get it now. So all the last however many flashback chapters were all part of what Hugo was telling Herman Kim, the guy in the fish store. That all makes sense now. Not too shab!

So now we're back to the present, and Hugo wraps it all up, and Herman seems to buy it. There's some notes about parts of the story that Hugo may have exaggerated or not actually told to Herman. And then Herman presses his thumb on Hugo's head and says "I took something from you." Uh? Back into weirds-ville with that one, but we're back on track with the story. Phew! And I'm all caught up! I'm not purposefully trying to make any other writers on this website look bad, but goodness that is was sure seems to be happening! j/k

Chapter 81

This chapter has a talking fish that saves Hugo from drowning. And there's a sentence in the first chapter that's highly grammatically suspect. It goes gerund, past-tense, past-tense, gerund when talking about the chain. It was confusing and I know I'm not a writer but I'm pretty sure you can't do that.

Um what else. The fish tells a long story about how a statue of a hand came to exist at the bottom of the ocean. Not sure it's that important.

Also I looked up pitures of oarfish on Google and can I just say gross?!?!

Chapter 80

This is the chaper where Hugo gets dumped in the ocean by Frank Muto. There is also some details about the city that fell from the sky, which has been mentioned a few times before. I still don't understand the physics of all that.

Since this whole book starts with Hugo getting out of the ocean, and now he just got dumped in, it's like we came full circle. I wonder if the story is about over? *shrug* That would be good, I guess. Oh but what ever happened with him having to find that special document??? I thought that was going to be important.

Chapter 79

No time for love Doctor JOnes, new chapter! This one's a pretty maudlin affair where Hugo goes to visit Delia Muto in the hospital. You wonder what kind of loose visitation rights this place has. He's all bummed and cries a bunch. Is he sad for what he did to her? Or sad that it got him kicked out of the family? Both? I don't know!

Also I want to note that it's still not clear who the actual narrator is. I mention it b/c there's one part where it says "I'm so sorry." but it's not in quotes, so is Hugo just thinking it? Or was it coming from the narrator? Do you know what I mean? I feel like there's been some stuff earlier where the narrator said the word "I." I'm just throwing some strange ideas out there.

But anyways this chapter really picks up at the end when Hugo gets mysteriously grabbed and thrown in a cab! Correction a Cadillac! Do not email me Leona.

Chapter 78

Wow, kind of an emotional chapter. It's all about Hugo packing his bags and leaving the house. At the end he's basically waiting for his sister Allison to leave with him, liked they'd discussed. But she decides not to for some reason, and it doesn't go into too much details but you can tell Hugo is bummed. What is her deal? we wonder.

One inside joke that readers might not get: Hugo packs a copy of something called "Fireland" in his bag. That's also the name of a website that used to be written by the guy writing this story. Little inside reference there. I felt like the bottle filled with something unknown is also a reference to something I saw on Fireland, but I can't find it now. Stayed tuned to FORT BLACK for the behind-the-scenes info.

Chapter 77

The last few chapters have all been a lot of flashbacks right in a row, I guess. This chapter is a family meeting with Hugo's family. I can't remember if we ever learned their last name or not. Either way, the upshot of this chapter is that Hugo gets kicked out of the family because of his science experiment, which caused DELIA MUTO to get put in the hospital and his parents to have to bail him out of jail. Basically they've had it with him. Hugo and his sister Allison have an interesting relationship, because they're sort of antagonistic like regular siblings, but also they seem to understand each other and have an "us vs them relationship" with their parents. That's what I got out of this chapter, ayways. I like the chapters that are all dialogue like this one is. Thumbs up Fonzie style. I wonder how many more chapters are left?

Chapter 76

It's CherrIE, actually. Nice. Anyways am I supposed to introduce myself. I like Pachinko and anything else Japanese-related. My favorite juice is Kagome Orange Carrot Blossom. I used to drink a ton of juice and it was like my favorite thing but now I'm worried about high fructose corn syrup and scared of juices that aren't 100% juice so that limits things. Anyways let's get back to reviewing the next chapter, shall we?

This is a chapter about the girl Hugo mentioned in the previous chapter, the one who ended up in the hospital because of the science experiment. I guess she got really screwed up pretty bad somehow. Actually this chapter is mostly about that girl's father (FRANK MUTO) and how he never dies (!?) and he wants to kill Hugo. But he wants to kill him respectfully and bury him at sea? If I recall correctly, the whole story starts with Hugo washing up on the beach, so maybe we'll be seeing more of Mr Muto later! Just my guess. If Leona says to cool it with my opinions, I will say YOU cool it with YOUR opinions!

Welcome Cherry Ziad

Well I was going to introduce my new contibutor to this site and give you some of the back ground but then she went ahead and already posted so I guess I'll just let her introduce herself. Cherry has been writing me alot over the few months and making corrections to some of my summaries and then lately gettin gpretty upset that I haven't been updating here even though the thing last time where I forgot to write a summary and then one of the chapters on the CHokeville site disappeared before I could write a summary hasn't happened since! But it is so long between new chapters over there that I sometimes forget or sometimes don't even care!! :) So when Cherry said she would be happy to help out if I just "stayed out of her way!!! LOL" that I said OK so now she can put things here too. Welcome Cherry.

Chapter 75

Leona took a powder I guess? Maybe she's tired from doing such a bang-up job. (Sarcasm.) Anyways someone better hurry and update this before the next chapter disappears. So I guess this is all dialogue from Hugo. He’s telling Herman Kim some background information about a science experiment he (Hugo) did in Fortalia. ANd how he can’t go back there anymore. I think he’s saying that this will be helpful b/c now it’s like he’s a dead person, which would maybe be of use to Glendennig’s company, I forget the name. Are we supposed to give our impressions? I felt like there was a piece missing that explained why just b/c he can’t go home it’s the same as him being dead, but I liked the addendum or footnote at the end, whatever it was. And overall you get some details about Hugo’s mysterious past that make you wonder.