Dead End In Norvelt

To delay a conflict with Mom, Dad takes a construction job in West Virginia. When he returns, he receives the expected “tongue lashing.” Dad then speaks to Jack about “gun safety.” Jack swears that he didn’t know there was a bullet in the chamber. Dad is confused: He didn’t put a bullet in the chamber. Dad pivots to his World War II experience. He says that their officers threatened to shoot them if they didn’t fire their weapons at the Japanese soldiers. Countering the American Revolution example, Dad says that getting close to the Japanese soldiers made him want to shake their hand, not kill them.

Jack remembers going deer hunting with Dad around Thanksgiving time. Dad told him not to fart because deer can hear and smell it. As Dad was about to shoot a deer, Jack managed to create a “whisper-thin stream of gas” (99), but Dad figured out what happened. He said that someone else would shoot the deer and that he’d come back by himself. On the way home, they encountered inebriated members of the Norvelt Gun Club. Dad told Jack to never drink and use guns. He also told Jack to never drink and drive.

Jack reads about another Spanish conqueror, Hernán Cortés, who admired Pizarro and massacred the Aztecs, turning them into a “lost world.” Nevertheless, the book’s author labels Cortés a “great man.” The praise reminds Jack that Miss Volker told him to beware of history written by the victors.

Mom takes Jack to the town doctor, Dr. Mertz. On the walk there, Mom looks away from the abandoned homes and focuses on the squirrels and rabbits. Once there, Jack realizes that Mom didn’t make an appointment. He also notices a taxidermized fish. Mom tries to get Dr. Mertz to cauterize the inside of Jack’s nasal passages in exchange for jarred fruit or pickles. Dr. Mertz insists on cash, so Mom and Jack leave. Mom reminiscences about a barter economy, but Jack thinks that people always wanted cash or gold. Mom persists in putting down money. She then jokes about being Jack’s “older girlfriend.”

Jack read Miss Volker’s “This Day in History” column for June 23. On June 23, 1611, the English explorer Henry Hudson experienced a mutiny; 72 years later, the English Quaker William Penn signed a peace treaty with the Lenape tribe and got the land that would become Pennsylvania. Jack wishes that he could sign a peace treaty with his parents.

Miss Volker has a network comprised of “spies,” and one of her “spotters” thinks that Mrs. Dubicki might have died. To avoid recognition and possible legal trouble, Jack dresses as the grim reaper (his Halloween costume), and though he’s only driven a tractor, he drives Miss Volker and himself in Miss Volker’s car to Mrs. Dubicki’s house.

The front door is unlocked, and Jack finds Mrs. Dubicki in front of the TV. Suddenly, she sits up. Unfazed, she calmly speaks to Jack as if he were the grim reaper, telling him to return in about two weeks; she doesn’t want to miss her grandson’s birthday. She then encourages Jack to stay before telling him that Karen Linga broke her hip. She’s in pain, so the grim reaper should take her. Back in the car, Miss Volker concedes that Jack is a nice-looking grim reaper.

Dad buys Mom “charity food” to compensate for destroying the cornfield. Though Jack remains grounded, Dad helps him escape from his room by giving him the task of digging the fake atomic bomb shelter. While digging, Jack asks him about “past history” versus “future history,” and Dad claims that the latter is scarier because technology makes each war deadlier. Dad believes that people will eventually have to live underground.

Mom appears, and she says that Mr. Spizz and people from the Community Center will help Dad and Jack build the bomb shelter. Dad rejects the offer. He doesn’t want to share the shelter with them, nor does he want them flying his plane. Bunny arrives next. She believes that “UFO people” will dig up humans one day to learn about their culture. More pressing, she tells Jack about the nearby death of a member of the volatile motorcycle organization, Hells Angels. The Hells Angel member was dancing in the middle of the road when a cement truck hit him.

At the funeral parlor, Jack avoids looking at the Hells Angel member, so Bunny describes his devilish tattoos. Miss Volker concludes that the biker died from an enormous skull fracture. She also claims that the man started dancing the jig at a bar three miles away. Mr. Spizz allegedly saw him dancing at Bob Fenton’s gas station. If no one claims the biker’s body, Mr. Huffer will cremate him. As for the obituary, Miss Volker will have to think about it.

The next morning, before going to Miss Volker’s home, Mom tells Jack to bring the casseroles she made to the Community Center. Mr. Spizz will deliver them to the women who need food. Jack wonders if Mr. Spizz “bugs” Mom. Mom says he does but that in a small community, people can’t dwell on one another’s “faults.” Dad wants Jack to finish digging the decoy bomb shelter, and Jack quips that he’s simply “following orders” by helping Miss Volker.

Miss Volker intends to operate on Jack’s nose, but she needs more wax for her hands, so they drive to the drugstore, where Miss Volker flirtatiously spars with Mr. Spizz. Miss Volker calls Mr. Spizz Norvelt’s “town irritant,” and Mr. Spizz wonders if Jack is Miss Volker’s boyfriend. Mr. Spizz wanted to marry Miss Volker, but she chose to focus on nursing. The marriage proposals continued, and Miss Volker promised to marry him once every original Norvelter died.

Back at Miss Volker’s house, Miss Volker tells Jack that the problem with his nose isn’t the lack of iron in his blood: It’s his nose’s capillaries. She thinks they’re too “delicate,” so she’s going to cauterize them. After putting an anesthetic on his nose, Miss Volker heats a map pin and puts it in his nostrils. Jack can’t feel it, but he can smell the burning flesh. Finished, Miss Volker cooks her hands and then delivers the biker’s obituary. Before Jack leaves, he gets Compound 1080 poison so that Miss Volker can kill the vermin in her basement that eat her sister’s “Great Women in History” needlepoints.

Jack picks up the casseroles for the women—Mom says that all the working men died from black lung disease—and takes them to the Roosevelt Community Center. There, he runs into Bunny, who’s there with two other Girl Scouts, Betsy Howdi and Mertie-Jo Kernecky. Jack has a crush on the latter. As the Girl Scouts leave, Mr. Spizz enters. He says that the fine will become $6 if Jack’s family doesn’t pay it.