64 pages • 2 hours read
Watt KeyTerror at Bottle Creek
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 18-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
Despite having no shirt, Cort runs out into the storm, calling for Francie. Liza joins him, but he sends her back for a flashlight and continues downhill towards the houseboat. Disoriented, he reaches the river sooner than he should and realizes how high it is. Francie calls from the houseboat; Cort finds the mooring rope and pulls himself through the water towards her. When the rope goes slack, Cort is plunged into the water. Some debris strikes him on the back and pins him beneath the surface. He kicks off his shoes, scrambling in the dark mess of vines, branches, and churning water. He pulls himself back to shore as Liza returns with the flashlight. They soon realize that the rope has snapped and the houseboat is loose with Francie aboard.
Chapter 19 Summary
With difficulty, Cort and Liza launch a small boat. Liza works a light to search for the houseboat while Cort drives them out into the storm, the boat crashing into floating debris and sunken trees. Water is flooding into the boat as they reach the houseboat and tie up to it. They get out onto the houseboat and find Francie and Catfish.
Chapter 20 Summary
Liza gets the floatation vests out of storage while Cort throws out anchors and sinks the spuds, trying to slow the houseboat long enough for them to bail out the boat and escape. Nothing works; the water is too deep. Suddenly, the boat is torn free, tearing off part of the houseboat’s roof. Cort shoves a compass in his pocket and straps on a life vest. The floor suddenly gives way, plunging them down to the lower level. The boat snags in the shallows and begins to lean; Cort knows it will soon capsize.
Cort tries to convince Catfish to jump down from the higher level and join them, but he refuses. Cort knows that he is “telling him goodbye more than arguing with him” (92). He tells the girls that they have to leave the dog. The girls are upset, but Cort knows that he cannot carry the dog and Francie. They jump out into the shallows, leaving Catfish behind.
Chapter 21 Summary
They wade into the swamp and steady themselves against some trees. The compass shows Cort that they are now on the other side of the river. He desperately wishes his father were there to help him but knows that their only option is to go further into the swamp and head for the high ground of the Bottle Creek Indian Mounds. Francie is bitten by ants, but they manage to brush them off her. As they set forth into the darkness, Cort realizes that the “swamp ha[s] changed into a place [he is] no longer familiar with” (97), as usually-hidden creatures climb into the trees and watch them from the shadows.
Chapter 22 Summary
A huge hog passes them in the water, moving off into the darkness. The water is up to Cort’s stomach but, now that they are deeper into the swamp, the current no longer a problem. He carries Francie, limp and silent in his arms. It is after midnight and Cort is worried about crossing the bayou to get to the mounds. He is worried about how they will get up into the trees and what they might find up there if they do. However, more than anything, he is worried about the animals that cannot get into the trees because he will have to fight them for what little bit of high ground there is remaining.
Chapter 23 Summary
There is a large population of boars in the region: They are versatile and resilient, growing up to 300 pounds. They are clever, unpredictable, violent, and capable of feeding off almost anything. Cort’s father regularly takes people out on hog hunts, but he and Cort do not enjoy it because it “draws men who are more into cruelty than challenges” (104). When Cort was 10, he was attacked by a boar and still has scars to prove it. He knows that they can kill and even eat humans. Although Cort’s father is far more nervous about snakes, like the highly poisonous cottonmouth, Cort is more frightened of hogs.
Chapter 24 Summary
Cort is dreading the swim across Bottle Creek to reach the mounds, especially as he will have Francie on his back, holding onto his neck. When they set off, it is so dark that Cort shuts his eyes and finds his way feeling the direction of the wind on his face. The swim is easy, but when they pause part way, the water is up to their chests and necks, and they are shivering with cold. A horrible scream comes from ahead of them in the darkness.
Chapter 25 Summary
The sound is not a human scream, but they do not know what it is. However, they must get out of the water before they get hypothermia, so Cort sets off towards the sound. Before long, there is another scream and “an explosion against the surface like a herd of cattle stampeding across a river” (110). Cort is filled with fear but does not stop, not wanting to talk to Liza about whatever lays ahead. The flashlight reveals deer and hogs standing on small patches of higher ground, standing perfectly still. They push on past this unnerving sight. As Cort begins to feel panicky, a bear walks right past them, causing Francie to scream. There is another terrible squeal and the sound of thrashing animals; Cort turns to see two alligators tearing apart a hog right beside them. They run.
Chapter 26 Summary
They mound is a larger and higher patch of ground but is already filled with terrified animals. One particularly huge, rust-colored boar, which Cort names Rusty, seems to be guarding the ground from them, but Cort knows they must get past it so they can climb into the trees. The trees will at least make them safe from the hogs and the alligators, but anything that can climb will still be a threat. The make it to the trees, and Cort helps them into the branches. Before he can climb up himself, Rusty charges him and gores his leg. Cort scrambles into the tree, and several hogs close in after them, trapping them there.
Chapters 18-26 Analysis
The familiar becomes unfamiliar and dangerous, showing the underbelly of Cort’s lifestyle on the swamp and disorienting the characters, adding the sense of danger and urgency. When Cort makes his way down to the houseboat, he is thrown by how high the river is already, the familiarity of the landing becoming confusing and alarming. This becomes even more severe when he is thrown from the mooring rope and into the churning darkness of the water. Worse, the houseboat changes from a familiar place of safety into a source of terror, as it is pulled from its mooring and out into the raging river with Francie and Catfish aboard. Mirroring how the boat is no longer the safe place Cort believed it to be, Cort must struggle to get aboard with Liza and even then, the boat collapses and runs aground, threatening to tip over and kill them all.
He must eventually abandon it, giving up on his previous home, the place that was once a refuge but now a source of danger and upset. This sense of loss is highlighted when he must leave Catfish behind. As far as he knows, Catfish will die in the storm. He must accept that loss to move forward and protect the girls. This supports many of the novel’s themes: As heavy responsibilities are thrust upon him, he must come to terms with loss and learn how to be an adult.
Now deep under water, the swamp is transformed: Familiar landmarks have been torn away or have sunk beneath the surface, and it is no longer possible for Cort to navigate as he used to. He must draw on everything he knows to adapt to this, shutting out the disorientating changes around him and navigating by the feel of the wind on his face. Not only is the swamp unfamiliar now; it is also dangerous, reflecting Cort’s sense that the swamp is not where he wants to be anymore and proving the truth of his father’s statement that the swamp “gets evil real quick” (23).
Creatures that usually hide away in the shadows and shallows are now all watching the children from the shadows and treetops, or heading for higher ground, terrified and fighting for their lives just like Cort and the girls. Returning briefly to the familiar, Cort shares information on how dangerous these creatures are at the best of times, with Cort remembering being attacked by hogs and reflecting on how scared his father, the experienced river guide, is of snakes like the poisonous cottonmouth. However, this is far from the best of times, and the animals are even more dangerous now.
A series of increasingly unsettling moments builds a sense of fear about what lies ahead. For example, the inhuman scream and the image of the animals trapped on their small areas of high ground, standing still as statues, watching the children go by. These eerie and ominous moments build a sense of tension that finally breaks when the children encounter the animals and a hog gores Cort’s leg. This serves as the climax of this part of their journey, which the children can escape only by climbing a tree that seems, for a moment, to be a point of safety but will soon prove to be another source of danger.
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