At the camp, the other boys tease Zero about why he likes to dig so much. Stanley waits until he and Zero are alone to thank him for digging his hole and to ask why Zero helped him.
Zero replies that Stanley did not steal the sunflower seeds, and he did not steal the sneakers either. Stanley offers to teach Zero how to read. Zero smiles a wide-mouthed smile. Stanley is impressed at how smart Zero is both in memorization and in math. In return for the lessons, Zero offers to dig Stanley’s hole for an hour each day. In closing, Zero tells Stanley, “I’m not stupid, I know everybody thinks I am. I just don’t like answering their questions.”
Later, while in bed, Stanley is thinking over the deal he made with Zero, worrying about X-Ray’s disapproval. As he tries to sleep the memory of his experience in the Warden’s cabin drifts around in his head. Suddenly remembering the makeup case, he realizes that the gold tube he had found is the top from a lipstick, and the KB inscribed on it could mean Kate Barlow.
Green Lake was actually a lake over one hundred years ago. Each year Miss Katherine Barlow would pick peaches from the trees that lined the shore, and preserve them in jars with spices. She always won prizes for her recipe at the annual Fourth of July town picnic.
Katherine taught school in a broken down schoolhouse. She was smart and beautiful. The town children loved her, and so did the young men. One man, Charles Walker, who had earned the nickname Trout because of his awful foot odor (he had the same foot fungus that would plague Clyde Livingston generations later), tried to court Miss Barlow. He was rich, but inconsiderate, arrogant and stupid, so Katherine turned him down, much to his chagrin.
Zero replies that Stanley did not steal the sunflower seeds, and he did not steal the sneakers either. Stanley offers to teach Zero how to read. Zero smiles a wide-mouthed smile. Stanley is impressed at how smart Zero is both in memorization and in math. In return for the lessons, Zero offers to dig Stanley’s hole for an hour each day. In closing, Zero tells Stanley, “I’m not stupid, I know everybody thinks I am. I just don’t like answering their questions.”
Later, while in bed, Stanley is thinking over the deal he made with Zero, worrying about X-Ray’s disapproval. As he tries to sleep the memory of his experience in the Warden’s cabin drifts around in his head. Suddenly remembering the makeup case, he realizes that the gold tube he had found is the top from a lipstick, and the KB inscribed on it could mean Kate Barlow.
Green Lake was actually a lake over one hundred years ago. Each year Miss Katherine Barlow would pick peaches from the trees that lined the shore, and preserve them in jars with spices. She always won prizes for her recipe at the annual Fourth of July town picnic.
Katherine taught school in a broken down schoolhouse. She was smart and beautiful. The town children loved her, and so did the young men. One man, Charles Walker, who had earned the nickname Trout because of his awful foot odor (he had the same foot fungus that would plague Clyde Livingston generations later), tried to court Miss Barlow. He was rich, but inconsiderate, arrogant and stupid, so Katherine turned him down, much to his chagrin.
Chapter 24
In the morning Stanley sees Mr. Sir whose face is badly swollen from the Warden’s scratches. When one boy asks Mr. Sir what happened, Mr. Sir grabs him by the throat smashing him into an oatmeal pot. Out on the lake Stanley does not dare talk to the other boys about what happened to Mr. Sir. When Mr. Sir comes to fill the boys’ canteens he runs the water on to the dry ground rather than fill Stanley’s. Mr Sir asks if he wants more water and then he lets the water spill onto the ground again.
Chapter 25 & 26
Sam the onion man rowed his homemade boat across the Green Lake of
one hundred years ago with his donkey, Mary Lou. He sold onions that seem to
have incredible medicinal powers, curing everything from asthma to baldness.
Sam was a Negro, so he was not allowed to attend Miss Katherine
Barlow’s school, but she talked him into making repair after repair on the old schoolhouse
so they could spend time together. She paid him with jars of spiced peaches.
She read him poetry, some of which he already knew by heart. He told her of his
onion fields across the lake where the water runs uphill.
One rainy evening when there was nothing left to repair, Sam
kissed Katherine. They were seen by a woman from the town who said, “God will
punish you!”
Soon the whole town knew that the schoolteacher had kissed the
onion man. Trout Walker led an angry mob into the schoolhouse where they tore
things apart and set fire to the books. Katherine escaped and ran to the
sheriff. He was drunk and told Katherine that Sam would be hung for kissing a
white woman, and that God would punish her. He offered Katherine a deal, “One
sweet kiss, and I won’t hang your boyfriend. I’ll just run him out of town.”
Katherine jerked herself free and ran out to find Sam. She and Sam
tried to escape in Sam’s rowboat, leaving Mary Lou behind. Trout Walker came
after them in his motorboat, smashed into Sam’s boat, shot Sam, and brought
Katherine back to the shore where she found Mary Lou shot in the head.
That is when it stopped raining forever at Green Lake. “You make
the decision: Whom did God punish?”
A few days later Miss Katherine Barlow went back and shot the
sheriff, then kissed him leaving a red lipstick print. She would be the
fearsome Kissin’ Kate Barlow for the next twenty years.
Chapter 27 & 28
For days Mr. Sir has been pouring Stanley’s water onto the ground, so Stanley now conserves his water as he digs. It helps that Zero digs part of Stanley’s hole, but the other boys are angry about this and do not understand that Stanley is “saving his energy” to teach Zero how to read. When Mr. Sir comes with the water truck again, he fills Stanley’s canteen and then takes it to the far side of the truck and does something unseen before returning it to Stanley. Later while digging, Stanley pours his canteen out without drinking, afraid of what Mr. Sir might have put in it.
Stanley finishes teaching the quick-learning Zero how to write the letters of the alphabet. He teaches Zero how to write his name. Zero tells Stanley that his real name is Hector Zeroni.
Kate Barlow, who had become a little crazy, returned to Green Lake after twenty years. The lake had almost completely dried up. All that remained of the town was a small cabin near two oak trees. Kate lived in the cabin remembering and sometimes imagining Sam’s presence. She wished she were dead.
After a few months, Trout Walker came and kicked down her door. He had with him a gun and a red-haired woman who had married him for his money, which had “dried up with the lake.” They brutally demanded that Kate lead them to where she had buried her treasure. Kate walked outside barefoot, leaving her turquoise-studded boots inside, and zigzagged around the vast wasteland leading Trout and his wife nowhere. She was bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard and told Trout and his screeching wife to go ahead and dig. “Kate Barlow died laughing.”
Stanley finishes teaching the quick-learning Zero how to write the letters of the alphabet. He teaches Zero how to write his name. Zero tells Stanley that his real name is Hector Zeroni.
Kate Barlow, who had become a little crazy, returned to Green Lake after twenty years. The lake had almost completely dried up. All that remained of the town was a small cabin near two oak trees. Kate lived in the cabin remembering and sometimes imagining Sam’s presence. She wished she were dead.
After a few months, Trout Walker came and kicked down her door. He had with him a gun and a red-haired woman who had married him for his money, which had “dried up with the lake.” They brutally demanded that Kate lead them to where she had buried her treasure. Kate walked outside barefoot, leaving her turquoise-studded boots inside, and zigzagged around the vast wasteland leading Trout and his wife nowhere. She was bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard and told Trout and his screeching wife to go ahead and dig. “Kate Barlow died laughing.”
Chapter 29 & 30
It becomes even hotter at Camp Green Lake because of the humidity from the thunderstorms in the distant mountains. To Stanley it appears that lightning is coming out of a huge, distant rock formation that resembles a fist with the thumb sticking up, “as if it were the thumb of God.”
As Stanley digs he ponders “God’s thumb” thinking he must be near where his great-grandfather was robbed. He wonders if the lipstick tube he found was really Kate Barlow’s. It comes time for Zero to dig part of Stanley’s hole and the other boys sarcastically taunt Stanley about having a slave. When Mr. Pendanski arrives with the water truck the boys force Stanley to the front of the line accusing him of being better than they are. The taunting leads to a pushing fight with Zigzag, though Stanley does not push back. Mr. Pendanski intervenes encouraging Stanley to hit Zigzag and “teach the bully a lesson.” Stanley feigns a punch and Zigzag proceeds to beat Stanley up. Zero pulls Zigzag off and has him in a life threatening choke hold. Mr. Pendanski fires his gun into the air. The gunfire brings the Warden and the other counselors out. The boys tell the Warden that Zero has been digging part of Stanley’s holes. Stanley tries to explain, but the Warden turns the situation against Zero by quizzing him on phonics. Mr. Pendanski comments that Zero is “so stupid, he doesn’t even know he’s stupid.” Zero then refuses to dig any more holes. Mr. Pendanski continues to berate Zero. Having had enough, Zero smacks a shovel into Mr. Pendanski’s face. The counselors draw their guns as Zero slowly walks away until he disappears in the distance. Expecting Zero to return, the Warden posts guards at the showers and wreck room for the remainder of the day and night. She orders the six boys remaining to dig all seven holes.
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