Week Three

Chapter Summaries: 

Chapter 46 U-Haul Threatens - On their way to Virginia Beach Fast Forward insists they stop in Richmond to locate Mouse.  They find her in a forlorn house where she invites them to do lines of cocaine.  That night people come in and out of the house music blaring.  The next morning Fast Forward tapes the drugs he gets from Mouse underneath his truck,  and they head home without going to the beach.  Demon is furious with himself for believing he'd actually make it to the ocean,  for relying on others to uphold their promises.  He looks to Dori for salvation from loneliness and for drugs to quell his drug withdrawals.    Angus calls and tells him to come to the house because coach is mad that he missed school all week.  U-Haul tells Demon that Coach is misappropriating funds and he is holding that against him to gain power.  U-Haul also insinuates that he is after Angus.  

Chapter 47- Vester Dies - Dori can't stop grieving over her father's death.  Taking care of him was all she knew how to do. His death also means they lose their drug supply.  Demon learns that Dori was trading her father's prescription medications for other drugs or selling some of them to  desperate addicts in Dr. Watt's parking lot, the same doctor who had first attended Demon.  Miss Betsy and Mr. Dick arrive in June because Demon had spent so much time at Dori's that he flunked out of school.  She stops the support checks and hopes he can make some good come out of this situation.  Demon leaves coach's house and moves in with Dori who is now eighteen.   He turns down coach's offer that he continue to live at the house.  Angus is angry that Demon didn't push back against Miss Betsy.  She asks him about his drug use,  and he tells her some half-truths.  Ultimately she wants him to be happy. If  Dori makes him happy then she isn't going to give him a hard time.  

Chapter 48 - Emmy Runs Off - Emmy runs off with Fast Forward rather than taking a scholarship to UT Knoxville.  June tries to find her and enlists Demon's help.  Dori and Demon are so desperate for drugs they visit Dr Watts' drug clinic.  He tells Dori he will wave his "fees" if Dori lets him give her an "exam".  One bright light is seeing Tommy who has more authority at the paper working in the ad department.  Demon starts drawing art for the ads. 

Chapter 49 - Comic Strip- Dori and Demon both have jobs and have enough money to keep themselves in prescriptions.  June invites him over and pumps him for info about Emmy.  Tommy lets him draw a super hero comic strip  for the paper called Red Neck to replace a strip that portrays their area as full of lazy idiots.  

Chapter 50 -Miss Annie -  Demon keeps busy working his job and drawing the comic strip, but Dori pouts shoots up and constantly demands his attention.  He sees Angus who tells him coach is worried about him and things aren't going well in the house because U-Haul is getting ugly.  He stops by the school and talks to Miss Annie who tells him she knows he is the one behind Red Neck even though he doesn't sign them.  

Chapter 51 -Up and Down Week - Maggot and Swap Out rob a drug store with Demon driving the car.  Fast Forward tells Demon Emmy is no longer with him.  The newspaper wants to formalize an agreement with Demon for the Red Neck strip and pay him.  He goes over to Miss Annie's and Mr. Armstrong's house to talk to them about it. He ends up getting $50/week and thinks that when he is 18 he can now afford to marry Dori and get clean.  Rose calls in the middle of night demanding that Demon meet her.  Rose tells him Emmy was whoring for Fast Forward, but he got disgusted with her and left her in Atlanta.  She gives him Emmy's bracelet to prove she is telling the truth. Rose holds a grudge against Demon for introducing Fast Forward to Emmy taking the spotlight away from her relationship to Fast Forward. 

Chapter 52 - Collecting Martha - June formulates a plan to find Emmy in Atlanta.  Dori loses her job and takes to her bed.  Tommy and his office are a safe haven, but he challenges Demon to get sober and that conversation does not go well.  They stay connected and continue to work together on the comic at Tommy's garage dwelling connected to the McCobb house.  June asks Maggot and Demon to collect Martha at a crack house so she can ask her about Emmy.  When he gets home Demon rouses Dori and she tells him she is pregnant.

Chapter 53 - Finding Emmy-Demon goes to June for advice.  She assures him Dori can take care of herself for one day and convinces him to go with her and her brother to Atlanta to fetch Emmy.  They find Emmy passed out,  half-naked and bruised and bundle her up in the car.  On the drive home June tells him his father died diving at Devil's Bathtub,  possibly to show off for his mother and possibly to save his mother from drowning as she was in the water without knowing it was deep and couldn't swim.  After the accident she said his mom "never fully wanted to be in the world".  

Chapter 54 - Dori Loses the Baby- Demon finds Dori in a puddle of blood when he gets home and cleans her up.  He isn't sure if she ever was pregnant.  He thinks his only job now is to keep her alive. 

Chapter 55 -Blackmail -  Junes sends Emmy to rehab in Asheville, but before she goes she has a heart-to-heart with Demon.  Dori refuses to get out of bed.  Angus phones Demon desperate for him to come over to protect her from U-Haul who is threatening to blackmail her into having sex with him.  Angus found out that he forged coaches signature and took money from Miss Betsy to put money into Mr McCobb's ponzi scheme.  He knew stuff about her dad and threatened to make that info public.  

Chapter 56 - Dori's Demise - Dori Overdoses almost a year after her dad died.  Jip also dies and Demon buires him in the yard.  Demon cleans things up and contacts her next of kin.  Angus comes to the funeral to support him.  Angus fills him in on coach's actions after the night with U-Haul.  She went with coach when he explained everything to the school board.  If they suspend him they won't do it until after the football season is over.  Angus tells coach he has one year to get his act together then she is moving on to another college. Demon puts everything he owns into the Impala.  

Chapter 57- Hitting Bottom - Demon goes to live with Maggot at the Peggot's house.  They go on a bender,  and he loses another job.  At least once a week he sobers up and completes work on Red Neck; he can't let Tommy down.   Demon and Maggot go to the crack house where they run into Rose who is delivering a pizza.  She tells him Fast Forward is back in Lee County.  She invites him to follow her to his house.  They stop to help Hammer who has a flat tire.  They abandon the truck in the rain and continue to follow Rose.  They find the house where Fast Forward is staying and the woman living there says he and his former football friends went up to the Devil's Bathtub.  Hammer demands they drive up there too.  

Chapter 58 - Devil's Bathtub - Hammer on meth wants to "hunt down Fast Forward and have it out" because of how he treated Emmy, Hammer's first love.  He sits in the back seat with is rifle while Demon drives through the storm.  Demon remembers all the abuse Fast Forward inflicted on him and his friends, especially Tommy and gears up for a confrontation.  Demon's knee means painful and slow going up the watery trail while Maggot and Hammer scamper on ahead.  Demon wonders if Rose and Fast Forward have set some kind of trap for him knowing his fear of the Devil's Bathtub "versus pure accidental nightmare pileup of bad choices" (p. 483).  Demon meets two of Fast Forwards gang coming down the trail but doesn't follow them because he has always felt some level of responsibility for Maggot and now Hammer.  Devil's Bathtub is a roiling cauldron of water with two high waterfalls falling from a steep cliff.  Fast Forward stands on top of the highest waterfall nude "peacocking" for all to see.   His loyal friend Big Bear is nearby.  He responds to Hammer's accusations by "trash-talking Emmy."  Hammer adjusts his rifle towards Fast Forward.  Big Bear yells, warning Fast Forward about the gun.  Fast Forward slips then tries to execute a perfect dive, but ends up landing on a rock half in and half out of the pool.  Hammer,  shocked yells that he was going to put down the rifle and climb up there to confront Fast Forward; he never wanted anyone to die.  Before Demon can stop Hammer, he dives into the churning pool to save Fast Forward,  but gets swallowed up in the torrent of water and drowns.  Big Bear and Maggot run down the trail for help, Demon stays behind and submerges the rifle into the water so no one will find it.  He drags Hammer's body onto the shore and thinks about the pain Big Bear will now endure.  He regrets not diving in himself because of Mrs Peggot's prophecy that he will never drown due to his "baggie birth."  

Chapter 59 - Repercussions - Demon does to the hospital due to exposure. An enraged  Rose visits him in the hospital demanding to know how Fast Forward died.  She tells him cryptically that Demon and Maggot messed up "the plan" by bringing Hammer. She is so despondent over Fast Forward's death she wants to punish Demon and Hammer by sending them to prison on drug charges.  She wants everyone to feel as lost and broken as she does.  Demon pushes back trying to protect the Peggots.  Hammer was the "Peggot's MVP" and they all came out to mourn him.  Rose takes her revenge by telling the police about Maggot and the drugs, so the Peggots have to lawyer up.  June enrolls Demon in Medicaid, which will pay for a Suboxone clinic and then a half-way house.  The Peggots think the best chance Maggot has to get clean is through the criminal justice system so that he is forced to go through treatment.  

Chapter 60 -The Cave - Demon leaves the Peggots because he doesn't want to do the family any more harm.  He holds himself  responsible for Hammer's death and for not protecting Maggot.  He drives mindlessly and ends up at a park he visited with his first social worker.  He leaves his keys in the car and starts walking towards Sand Cave White Rocks.  Delirious, he  heads up into the hills along a lush green trail.  During the hike with no fresh water or food he tests his will to live.  He wishes he could talk to Angus who always had a positive outlook about his future and didn't blame him for his self-destructive actions.  "Trust the road.  Because nobody stays, in the long run you're on your own with your ghosts.  You're the ship, they're the bottle" (p.508).  

Chapter 61- Getting Clean -  Demon spends time in Knoxville in re-hab and later at the half-way house.  Maggot spends two years in Juvenile detention and is now living with Mariah in Bristol, Tennessee. "Outcome to be determined" (p.510).  Until he gets good health insurance he can't get a knee replacement so ends up working in the produce department at Walmart.  Demon credits Angus, Mrs. Armtstong, Miss Annie and Tommy along with people he meets in rehab with helping him along.  

Chapter 62 - High Ground - Demon is 31/2 years sober and tells how he got there.  Demon gets help from Lyra the librarian and studies for his GED.  He uses the library computers to continue his comic strip for another year until Tommy marries his girlfriend and moves to Pennsylvania to start a family and continue his career.  Demon  builds his own website and uploads his drawings. He creates graphic novels that depict events in coal country and a story of his time with Dori called The Incapables.   He and Angus correspond the most.  Maggot and his mother work at Pet Smart.  Maggot's boyfriend works in the reptile department.   Tommy and Demon explore writing a graphic novel.  Angus gets involved,  and it is ultimately called High Ground.  "The two-hundred-years war to keep body and soul together on our mountains" (p.524).  Miss Annie is his biggest fan and pledges to help him secure a book deal.  With the help of his counselor,  he decides it's time to visit Lee County.  

Chapter 63 - Visiting Home - Annie encourages him to come and visit while she is on leave waiting for her baby to be born.  She also mentions the town is honoring Coach Winfield who retired after the scandal.   During the drive from Knoxville  he passes landmarks that spark bitter memories, especially Watts'  pill mill.  June tells him Watts is facing charges now that the oxy epidemic is more widely known.   No one is home at Annie's house so Demon continues to drive around town.  He ends up  walking up the trail leading to Devil's Bathtub, which looks and feels nothing like it did the last time he was there.  He has breakfast with June and she fills him in on how everyone is doing  and tells him about her work to punish the oxy companies.  Emmy lives in a half-way house in Asheville but like him can never come back to Lee County to live.  He drives to Murder Valley to see his grandmother and Mr. Dick.  They are thrilled to see him.  Angus had filled them in on his book.  They ask questions about his book, but all he wants to talk about is Angus.  Does she have a boyfriend?

Chapter 64 - The Ocean - He visits Coach at his new apartment the day after his big party.  Coach talks about everyone that was there,  but all Demon can think about are the kids who aren't there including Big Bear who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  He drops in on Angus at their big house, which they are preparing to sell.  They discuss old times. Angus plans to become a social worker.  They dance around their attraction to one another.  She asks him if he ever got to see the ocean. He says he still has the ship in a bottle that she gave him for their first Christmas together.  Angus proposes that since she has the week off and he has no deadline to get back to Knoxville that they go to the ocean for Christmas.  He realizes during the drive that she is just as attracted to him and he is to her.."not my sister".  "Headed for the one big thing I know is not going to swallow me alive" (p.546).