Holes

The boys continue to make fun of Stanley for letting Zero help dig his hole so he has energy to teach Zero to read. Armpit, Zigzag, Magnet, and X-Ray are harsh, saying that their deal is like slavery. They start to mock Stanley, asking if they can dig for him too since he is better than they are. Stanley asks them to stop but they keep asking if they can dig for him in mocking tones. Zigzag tells Stanley to eat his cookie for him and let him dig Stanley’s hole too. Mr. Pendanski sees this and comes over, telling Stanley that he can hit Zigzag if he wants to. Stanley tries to hit Zigzag and Zigzag attacks him until Zero steps in and starts to choke Zigzag. Mr. Pendanski shoots his gun in the air to signal that he needs help.

The Warden and other counselors come when they hear Mr. Pendanski’s signal. X-Ray tries to cover up what happened by saying that they were all just too hot in the sun, which is why they started fighting each other. The boys reveal to the Warden that Stanley doesn’t dig his own holes all the way anymore because he gets help from Zero. The Warden tests Zero’s reading skills in front of everyone while Mr. Pendanski calls Zero stupid and laughs at him. The Warden tells Zero he won’t be getting any more reading lessons and Zero says he won’t dig holes anymore. Mr. Pendanski says that he thinks the reading lessons stress out Zero because he’s stupid and that’s why Zero must have fought. When Mr. Pendanski gives Zero the shovel, Zero swings it like a baseball bat and hits Mr. Pendanski, who becomes unconscious. Zero runs away and the Warden says that he will come back for water later.

While digging his own hole and knowing he will have to dig Zero’s, too, Stanley thinks about going after Zero but doesn’t. He thinks about telling the Warden where he really found the gold tube so that she’ll let Zero come back and give him water, but then “X-Ray would be out to get him for the next sixteen months” (142). The next day, Stanley thinks about going out to find Zero again and hopes that Zero went to the Big Thumb mountain for refuge. Mr. Pendanski, Mr. Sir, and the Warden ask Stanley if he knows where Zero went and Stanley hears them talk about how Zero has nobody who cares about him. The Warden tells Mr. Pendanski to erase all records of Zero as if he didn’t exist.

Two days later, a new kid who they nickname Twitch takes over Zero’s cot and place in their group. Stanley keeps worrying about Zero and hopes that he is alive. When Mr. Sir comes in his truck to give them water in the middle of the day, Stanley notices the keys are still in the ignition. He gets in the driver’s seat and drives away, hoping to rescue Zero. However, Stanley crashes the car into a hole. Stanley can’t even blame his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” because “this time it was his own fault […] he had probably just done the stupidest thing he had ever done in his short and miserable life” (148). Stanley gets out of the car and runs with his empty canteen around his neck.

Stanley walks slowly and forms a plan. He would walk halfway as far as he could and then turn back to the camp, which would hopefully have calmed down by then. He keeps walking and finds more hole clusters. He keeps looking into the holes and doesn’t “admit to himself what he was looking for” (150). At what he thinks is the last cluster of holes, he looks down and sees a family of yellow-spotted lizards. Stanley runs away until he feels safer.

Around midday, Stanley thinks he sees a pool of water but it turns out to be a mirage. However, he does see the mountain shaped like a thumb. He doesn’t know how far away it is, but “it seemed to encourage him, giving him the thumbs up sign” (153). As Stanley keeps walking, he notices a large object in the middle of the dry lake. He gets closer and sees an upturned boat with the name Mary Lou etched onto it. The boat seems to be Sam and Kate Barlow’s love boat. Stanley hears something stirring under a tunnel dug beneath the boat: “a dark hand and an orange sleeve reached up out of the tunnel” (154). It’s Zero.

Zero refuses to go back to the camp with Stanley. He shows Stanley how he has survived off something he calls “sploosh,” a yummy nectar in a jar that Stanley thinks “might have been some kind of fruit at some time, perhaps peaches” (157). Zero reveals that the jar of sploosh he shared with Stanley was the last jar, and Stanley tries to convince Zero to go back to camp. Zero continues to refuse. Stanley shows him the mountain shaped like a thumb.