Dead End In Norvelt

Mr. Greene wants to hire Jack for the Norvelt News, but Mom rejects the idea: Jack has work to do around home, and they’re paying him in the form of an allowance. Jack claims that he’s going to cry. Mom reminds him of how he got into his situation: mowing down her cornfield. However, she concedes that Jack might be able to work for Mr. Greene later. Mr. Greene could use Jack’s assistance, as he accidentally printed a “This Day in History” column for June 16 when it’s July 16. The column features notes about Henry Ford, President Abraham Lincoln, and Geronimo.

As Jack sadly digs the bomb shelter, he creates an obituary for himself. Bunny stops by and wonders if Jack could help her father clean up the embalming room after her father tended to a group of people who died in a bus crash. Jack can’t be around so much blood, so Bunny suggests that they “borrow” Miss Volker’s car and drive to Pittsburgh. Jack says no: He doesn’t want to get into trouble. Instead, he shows Bunny his room, where he constructed an igloo out of books. Jack likes to “sniff” the books, and Bunny thinks that’s “weird.” She doesn’t read, nor does she think highly of history. Jack believes that history is “alive” and powerful.

Bunny wishes that Jack could prove he didn’t put the bullet in the Japanese sniper rifle. If he could, he could hang out with her. Upset, Bunny leaves. Dad arrives with news that Bunny’s father is the person buying the houses and moving them to Eleanor, West Virginia. Mr. Huffer is also keeping the land they were on in Norvelt. Jack wonders if Mr. Huffer plans to turn Norvelt into a large cemetery.

To find out more about Mr. Huffer’s plans, Jack calls Bunny. Still upset over Jack’s isolation, Bunny dramatically refuses his calls before agreeing to meet if he joins her on the Girl Scout fire patrol. Jack sneaks out of the house. Bunny quips about his masculinity and offers him a cigarette, which he turns down.

Mr. Huffer is buying the Norvelt houses and selling them to the community in Eleanor because the town is bigger and thus there are more deaths. Mr. Huffer intends to move his funeral parlor from Norvelt to Eleanor and turn Norvelt into a development called Hufferville.

As Jack wonders if Bunny is joking about Hufferville, the Hells Angels arrive. One member tries to light a house on fire. Jack yells at him and throws a rock. The Hells Angel chases Jack and Bunny, and the volunteer fire department manages to put out the fire and limit the damage.

The “This Day in History” column for July 28 features King Henry VIII executing his chief minister Thomas Cromwell and the death of the tyrannical French Revolution politician Maximilien de Robespierre. The focus on death makes Jack wonder if he’ll die today. The arrival of the farrier reinforces the notion, as he’s a former Hells Angel. However, the farrier got fed up with drinking and acting “nasty,” so now he cares for animals. He reiterates his need to be paid in cash. He doesn’t want Jack, nor does he want to see Jack’s book igloo.

Jack drives to Mertie-Jo’s house to get more Thin Mints for Miss Volker. Mertie-Jo’s family needs money, and selling cookies isn’t enough, so they’re about to move to Pittsburgh, where her father can find a job. Jack says that he’d eat 1,000 cookies a day if she’d stay. Her father loads three boxes of Thin Mints into Miss Volker’s trunk, which has a skeleton in it that Jack mistakes for a dead woman.

At Miss Volker’s house, Mr. Huffer calls to warn about the impending death of Mrs. Hamsby. Her children want her cremated right away. Trusting Mr. Huffer’s testimony, Miss Volker agrees that Mrs. Hamsby died of natural causes. She’ll fill out the paperwork later.

For Mrs. Hamsby’s obituary, Miss Volker compares history to nature. She also notes how Mrs. Hamsby was in charge of Norvelt’s post office. She kept the undeliverable letters and pinned them throughout her house. Visitors can unpin them and read them. They can also enjoy the stamps that decorate each room.

Miss Volker then discusses Anne Frank, the Jewish teen whose family hid from the Nazis in a secret apartment and kept a diary. Eventually, the Nazis found her family. Only her father survived. Allies of the Franks kept Anne’s journal and gave it to her father. There was resistance to publishing it, but Eleanor Roosevelt admired Anne’s diary and wrote an introduction to the first American publication.

When Jack gives the typed obituary to Mr. Greene, Mr. Greene announces his suspicions about the older women’s deaths. He thinks that someone should investigate them, and Jack says that the job of newspapers and journalists is to examine suspect occurrences.

With help from some other workers, Dad can now fly the J-3. Mom forbids Jack from getting on the plane, and Jack grumbles, “Cheeze-us-crust.” Mom scolds Jack for “fake cursing.” Dad turns Jack into his “ground crew.” Jack must remove the wood blocks in front of the tires and avoid the dangerous propeller.

Dad taunts Mom and Jack by flying low. He then pretends to divebomb an empty house that he’ll soon move to West Virginia. Next time, Dad will have water balloons with him. Mom and Miss Volker reproach Dad. Mrs. Vinyl called Miss Volker: Mrs. Vinyl thought that the Russians were attacking Norvelt.