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Introduction

Freak the Mighty Summary

Kevin is brilliant, but his body is so crippled by birth defects that he has to wear braces onhis legs. Max is huge and powerful, but he has been so scarred by life that he feels dumb andworthless. Independently, each boy seems like half a person, but when they meet thesummer before eighth grade starts, they join together, becoming inseparable friends as Freakthe Mighty.

The novel Freak the Mighty tells the story of one defining year in the boys’ lives. It followsthem through their first meeting, their summer adventures, their return to school, and evenMax’s Christmas Eve kidnapping at the hands of his murderous father. Although the boysare eventually reunited, their happiness cannot last forever. Kevin’s health problems worsen,leading to his death and the end of Freak the Mighty. A devastated Max learns how to facethe world without his best friend.

Full of what could be trite or maudlin subject matter—a learning­disabled narrator, aphysically challenged boy, a convict father—Freak the Mighty integrates every elementsmoothly and naturally. The result is a charming, funny blend of realism and fairy­taledreaming that in the end is very moving.

Max and Kevin met for the first time when they were both in day care. Max was an angrykid called Kicker because he kicked everyone, while Kevin called himself Robot Manbecause of the leg braces he had to wear. Then Kevin stopped coming to day care, and theboys lost contact until they saw one another briefly in third grade.

The summer before eighth grade, Kevin and his mother moved in next door to Max’sgrandparents’ house, where he lived in the basement. The boys meet again when Max helpsKevin get his mechanical bird from the tree where it is stuck. The two boys become friends,and the two families start visiting back and forth.

On the Fourth of July, the boys are on their way to see the fireworks when they run intoTony D. and his gang of teenage thugs. Kevin teases them, and the situation potentially turnsdangerous until a police car shows up. The boys have a great time watching the fireworks,with Kevin sitting on Max’s shoulders, but as the crowd breaks up, Tony D. and his friendsfind them again. Kevin guides Max as the pair runs away, leaving Tony and his gangstranded in a muddy pond.

Max’s grandparents are happy that Max was there to help Kevin (though Max knows it was

really Kevin whose quick mind helped him). This starts a happy and extended partnershipbetween the two boys. Every morning Kevin comes over to rouse Max, who carries Kevinall over town. They have imaginary quests, such as looking for dragons, and as they do,Kevin encourages Max to think, dream, and read. On one of these quests, Kevin guides Maxto the hospital’s medical research building, claiming that the hospital staff is developingrobot bodies and when they are ready Kevin’s identity will be transplanted into one.

Their quests become real one morning when Kevin arranges for Max to get up at 3 a.m. anddress all in black. Kevin then guides Max to a sewer grate where a purse has fallen. Theyreturn it to the owner the next day, which means going into the tenement housing on the farside of the pond, a poor and crime­ridden place. The purse’s owner, Loretta Lee, lives withIggy Lee, head of a local motorcycle gang. The adults tease the boys a bit and talk to them;they recognize Max because he looks so much like his father, Kenny “Killer” Kane, who iscurrently in jail.

When school starts, Kevin’s mother gets the school to agree to let Max and Kevin be in thesame classes so that Max can help Kevin get around. This is a big change because Kevin isin the advanced classes while Max had been in classes for slow learners. The first time theirEnglish teacher calls on Max, the other kids start teasing him. Kevin then climbs up onMax’s shoulders and declares that together they are Freak the Mighty, winning everyone’sapproval.

Soon after this, Max is called to the principal’s office, where he learns that his father willsoon be released on parole. Max becomes unhinged and has to be restrained. Later that day,Kevin is eating chop suey in the school cafeteria and has a seizure.

That Christmas Eve, after the two friends exchange their first gifts, Max goes to bed.However, instead of Santa Claus coming to bring presents, Max’s father, Kenny, sneaks intothe house and kidnaps Max. Kenny takes him first to Iggy and Loretta’s place in thetenements, and then to an old woman’s home nearby. Kenny claims that Max’s grandparentshave poisoned his mind against his father, so Kenny keeps Max tied up and explains whatMax’s new life will be like.

Because police keep coming around the old woman’s house, Kenny hides with Max in aburned­out building across the alley from the tenements. Kenny ties Max in the basementand then leaves to see if he can get a car. While he is gone, Loretta sneaks in to help Maxescape. They have just managed to cut Max free of the ropes holding him when Kennyreturns and begins choking Loretta for helping Max. Max attacks his father, screaming thathe saw Kenny kill his mother. Kenny turns his murderous attention on Max, starting tochoke him.

Suddenly Kevin shows up with a squirt gun that he claims is filled with acid. He squirtsKenny in the eyes, and while they are burning (from what is later revealed to be soap,vinegar, and curry), Max escapes. Kenny is arrested and returned to jail.

Freak the Mighty Chapter Summaries

Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

The rest of the school year goes well, but once school is out again, Kevin has a seizure onhis birthday. He is taken to the hospital, and it is some time before Max gets to visit. Whilehe is visiting, Kevin has another attack and Max has to leave. When Max returns the nextday, Kevin has died. Max is distraught and punches through the glass door to the medicalresearch area. Once he is restrained and calmed down, Max asks Dr. Spivak, Kevin’s doctor,about the bionic body. Max learns that there had never been any plans for one—that it hadjust been a dream of Kevin’s to help him cope with his condition. Max withdraws from theworld, grieving the death of Freak the Mighty for about a year, but eventually heals as hewrites down the story of their adventures and friendship.

In the summer before their eighth grade year, Freak moves in down the block from the housewhere Max lives with his maternal grandparents, whom he affectionately calls “Grim” and“Gram.” Max had met Freak in daycare a long time ago, but his memories of the past areconfused. As Freak says:

Remembering is a great invention of the mind, and if you try hard enough you canremember anything, whether it really happened or not.

Max recalls that back then, he had had a reputation for “booting anyone who dared to touch”him. Having just been taken in by Grim and Gram, he had been an angry child who quicklyearned the nickname “Kicker.” Max remembers that Freak had not attended daycareregularly; when he did show up, he got around on crutches or with “shiny braces strapped tohis crooked legs.” Little Freak would pretend that he was Robot Man and quickly made itclear to everyone that despite his small stature, he was not someone to “mess with.”

Max does not recollect seeing Freak again after daycare until “like...the third grade orsomething,” when he caught a glimpse of “this yellow­haired kid scowling at [him] fromone of those cripple vans.” By that time, Mad Max, as he was most commonly called, had avariety of nicknames; ironically, the name he hated most was his real name, Maxwell. Maxhad once overheard his grandparents whispering about how much “Maxwell was getting tolook like Him.” He knows that Grim and Gram were talking about his father, whom theyreferred to as if his name was “too scary to say.”

Grim has built a small room in the basement, which Max calls his “own private downunder.” Even though he describes himself as “this critter hiding out in the basement,drooling in [his] comic books,” Max actually enjoys having a room of his own where he can

Chapters 3 and 4 Summary

escape the scrutiny of others. Max does not think of himself as being a very smart person,and he makes frequent references to his perceived intellectual deficiencies. He concludesthat he had “never had a brain until Freak moved [in] down the street.”

Freak moves back into the neighborhood on the first day of July. Max is “hanging out” inhis backyard when he sees the moving van. He notices Freak’s mother, who “looks likesome kind of movie star” and seems vaguely familiar. His attention is then drawn to “thiscrippled­up yellow­haired midget kid strutting around the sidewalk,” imperiously givingorders to the men unloading the van. Freak has a “normal­sized head,” but his body istwisted, and “shorter than a yardstick.” He is on crutches, and when he sees Max, he points acrutch at him, hollering, “Identify yourself, earthling!” Max, who by now recognizes Freakas “the weird little robot kid from day care,” gives no response. Freak then makes a“weapon noise” and shrieks, “Then die, earthling, die!” Recognizing from the look in hiseye that the “little dude” is serious, Max hastily retreats back to his room “down under.”

In the dim down under, Max thinks about “this crippled little humanoid” who has justreentered his life, and after a while he goes back outside to “check [things] out.” Max findsFreak standing under a tree behind his new home, furiously trying to jump up and hit abranch with his crutch. Frustrated, the little boy crawls over under the steps and laboriouslypulls out a standard American Flyer red wagon. When he gets it under the tree, he climbs upand “whacks” at the branch again, but he still cannot reach whatever it is he is trying to get.

Max notices that there is a “small, bright­colored thing...like a piece of folded paper” in thetree and goes over to get it down. Staying clear of the flailing crutch, he offers the “bird­thing” to Freak, who happily explains that it is “an ornithopter...an experimental devicepropelled by flapping wings.” Max, who does not understand half the words the little boy isusing, is amazed at how smart Freak is. Freak winds up the elastic band that propels themechanical bird and lets it go, and Max chases it and brings it back; the two boys continuein this activity until the elastic breaks after almost an hour. Freak then amiably asks Max,“You live around here, earthling?” In response, Max points to Grim and Gram’s house andmentions the down under. Picking up the handle of the wagon, he tows Freak over; Freaksits up in the wagon, “happy as can be.”

Freak “hump[s] down the stairs” to the cellar by himself, but the effort leaves him short ofbreath. He is impressed with Max’s living quarters. When Max explains about Grim andGram, he notes that “Grim” must be “a sobriquet for [Max’s] grandfather, based on hisdemeanor.” This is too much for Max, who clearly does not understand what his new friendis talking about. Freak merrily apologizes for his vocabulary and explains that “sobriquetmeans ‘nickname,’ and demeanor means “expression.’”

Chapters 5 and 6 Summary

Max, who has noticed that Freak refers to his mother as “Fair Gwen of Air,” asks if this is anickname too. Trying to suppress his laughter, Freak says that he is actually calling hismom, whose name is Gwen, “‘Fair Guinevere,’ from the legend of King Arthur.” Freakenthusiastically goes on to tell Max the story of Arthur, who was “this wimpy little kid” whowas able to yank “this magic sword...[from] a big stone” when no one else could do it.

Freak gets especially excited when he talks about King Arthur’s knights, who wore metalarmor to make them invincible when they went out on quests “to slay dragons andmonsters.” He says that the knights were “the first human version of robots.” When Maxsays that he thought robots were not real, Freak heatedly argues that “robotics, the science ofdesigning and building functional robots, is a huge industry.” Freak is amazingly well­informed about the subject of robotics. He says that although he watches Star Trek ontelevision, he reads a lot of books as well so he can “figure out what’s real.” Max becomesuncomfortable when Freak starts talking about books, because he has been diagnosed as“learning disabled” at school, and “reading books is the last thing [he] want[s] to do.”

At this point, the boys hear the Fair Gwen calling for Freak, whose real name is Kevin.When Max emerges from the down under with her son, she takes one look at his hulkingpresence, grabs Freak, and “almost runs home.” It is clear to Max that the Fair Gwen isterrified of him.

After the Fair Gwen runs off precipitously with Freak, Max goes back to the down underand lies under his bed, where it is

cool and empty...[and] you don’t have to think about anything... you’re not eventhere.

He is soon interrupted by Gram, who knocks on his door and says she has just had a callfrom Gwen Avery, who wants to apologize to him. Gwen had been stunned to see how bigMax has gotten and thinks she may have offended him by her reaction. Gram explains thatGwen had been a good friend of Max’s mother. She is “delighted” to know that he and herson, Kevin, are going to be friends and has invited him over for dinner.

Max, who really is “bigger than most people,” asks if he has to accept the invitation, andGram responds gently that it would be “the right thing to do.” She tells Max that it was nothim who scared Freak’s mother—but when Max asks, “Then who was it?” Gram evades thequestion and says she will “leave that to Gwen.”

Chapters 7 and 8 Summary

Dinner with Freak and his mother turns out to be “not so bad” after all. Gwen talks a mile aminute, telling Max that she remembers him as a baby, when she and his mother and theirgroup had been living over in the tenements. Freak bluntly mentions the growingresemblance between Max and his father, who is in prison, and Gwen looks uncomfortable.When Max asks Gwen if she had known his father personally, Gwen says, “Not very well....He made it...difficult for your mother to have friends.”

The Fair Gwen makes hot dogs and potato salad, and everyone eats on paper plates outsidein the backyard. Freak tells funny stories, and Max laughs so hard he chokes on his hot dogand ends up trying to sneeze it through his nose. Max has a great time and marvels at howhappy he is when he goes back to the down under. To his surprise, however, when he lies onhis bed, he is “crying like a baby.”

On the Fourth of July, Max is allowed to go to the fireworks display down by the millpondwith Freak. On their way there, the town bully, Tony D. (“alias Blade”), and his gang ofpunks harass them. When Freak realizes their tormentors are not going to go away, he boldlystands up to Tony D., calling him a “cretin.” Fortunately, a police car comes by at just thatmoment, and Blade and his gang make a quick getaway.

When they are gone, Freak asks Max, “You can take him, right?” Max replies that if he hadtried to fight Blade, he would have had to fight his gang too. Shocked at his own audacity intalking back to Tony D., Freak starts laughing so hard he falls over. Max reaches down topick him up and is amazed at how light his little friend is. Later, when the fireworks havestarted and Freak is complaining that he cannot see, Max unthinkingly picks up his friendand sets him on his shoulders. Although he is “kind of trembly up there” at first, Freak is notat all upset that Max has picked him up like a little kid. Grabbing Max’s hair for balance,Freak ecstatically watches the show, shouting out the chemical names for each of thereactions that create the spectacular colors and formations behind the Fourth of Julyfireworks display. Max concludes that Freak is “possibly the smartest human being in thewhole world.”

With Freak still on his shoulders, Max heads over to the food carts when the fireworks areover. Freak marvels at the “amazing perspective” he gets on the world from sitting up sohigh, then he suddenly warns Max that Blade and his gang are coming after them. He directshis friend to an escape route with his little feet “like he’s digging into a horse.” Max runs ata full gallop through the crowd, but eventually Blade and his punks surround them. Notknowing what to do, Max looks to Freak to make a decision, and Freak comes through,pushing Max to run right over one of Blade’s smaller gang members and straight into themillpond.

Chapters 9 and 10 Summary

The mud at the bottom of the pond is “really oozy and deep,” but Max just keeps on going;he is in the water up to his chest before he realizes Freak is telling him to stop. Turningaround with difficulty because of the thick mud, which is up to his knees, Max sees thatBlade is in trouble, with just his head above the water. When his “punksters” finally manageto rescue him, the angry and humiliated gang leader begins to throw rocks at Max andFreak.

As the rocks rain around them, Freak puts his fingers into his mouth and emits a whistle thatis so loud and piercing it hurts Max’s ears. A passing cop car is alerted, and Blade and hispunks run away. Max is so deeply entrenched in the mud that the cops have to use ropes topull him out. When the two boys are safely back on the bank of the pond at last, one of thecops recognizes Max as “Kenny Kane’s boy” and wonders to his partner if “Old KillerKane” is still in prison. When the policemen ask Freak for his name, the little boy, still onMax’s shoulders, proudly announces, “We’re Freak the Mighty!”

The cops take the boys home and make a big deal about Max and treat him like a hero “forrescuing the poor crippled midget kid.” Max thinks this is funny because, in his mind, Freakrescued him—or perhaps it was just the combination of Freak’s “genius brain and [Max’s]big dumb body.” Gram, a worrier, is concerned about the close call the boys have just hadand issues the usual warnings. To Max’s surprise, Grim actually seems proud of him andcalls him “son” for the first time ever.

The summer on the whole turns out to be “pretty cool” in Max’s estimation. Freak comesover every morning to wake him up, hollering:

Get outta bed, you lazy beast! There are fair maidens to rescue! Dragons to slay!

In the vivid world of imagination that Freak has created, knights and quests and otherelements taken from the stories of King Arthur are significant and have symbolic meanings.In Freak’s eyes, for example, “a dragon is fear of the natural world...an archetype of theunknown.”

Of course, archetype and many, many of the other words Freak uses with such ease arecompletely beyond Max’s comprehension. In an effort to help his less eloquent friendincrease his vocabulary, Freak often whips out the tattered dictionary he always carries inhis knapsack and makes Max look up words. Max, however, has a hard time withdictionaries and books in general, and he quickly and inevitably becomes bored. When thishappens, Freak gives up, reminding himself that intellectual dexterity is not everything; forexample, though dinosaurs are known to have had tiny brains, “they ruled the earth for ahundred million years.”

Freak and Max travel all over the neighborhood and beyond that summer, with Freak ridinghigh on Max’s shoulders and using his little feet to steer. As they journey, Freak makes upstories that seem so real Max sometimes forgets where he actually is. One day, as they headoff “yonder,” which “always lies over the next horizon,” Freak directs Max to an especiallydistant destination he calls “the Fortress.” It turns out that the Fortress is a new buildingadded to the back of a hospital; the sign over the door of this building says “MEDICALRESEARCH.”

Swearing Max to secrecy, Freak excitedly tells him that studies are being conducted at thislocation “to develop a new form of bionic robot for human modification.” At “some futuretime as yet undetermined,” Freak declares that he will enter this facility and become “thefirst bionically improved human.” Freak has been coming to this place every few months fortests. He announces that he is being fitted for a bionic transplant. When the time comes, hewill receive a “whole new body...only enlarged and improved.”

Although he can see how passionate Freak is, Max is skeptical about what his friend saysand is actually “pretty worried about the whole deal.” He suggests to Freak that it might bedangerous to be the first subject in the experiment, but it is clear that Freak has thought a lotabout this. He answers gravely, “Life is dangerous.”

During that summer, Max grows even more, and Grim comments that “carrying poor Kevinaround” all the time must be stretching out Max’s legs. Max is annoyed that everyone seemsto feel so sorry for Freak “just because he didn’t grow,” and he points out to Grim that thelittle boy is the smartest person he knows. Grim agrees that Freak is “a rather remarkableboy,” but he gives Max the feeling that there is something about Freak that Max just doesnot understand. Max wants to tell Grim that he is wrong about Freak but decides to keep hismouth shut instead.

One day, Freak comes to the down under with a very special quest in mind. He explains toMax that there is a treasure in the sewer and that they will have to wait until “optimumdarkness” to search for it: specifically, three in the morning. Overcome with a sense ofanticipation despite himself, Max does not sleep at all that night. Promptly at the appointedtime, he appears as directed at Freak’s bedroom window. The little boy is waiting for him,dressed in a Darth Vader costume. Climbing onto Max’s shoulders, cape and all, Freakdirects him to the storm drain a few blocks away. There, he imperiously orders Max toremove the grate covering the drain, but Max cannot budge it. Fortunately, Freak hasprepared for this possibility; he brings out a “special retrieval device” he has made, whichlooks suspiciously like a bent paper clip on a string. Freak directs Max to drop the hookdown. To Max’s surprise, it snags a “grotty old purse.” Together, the boys pull the purse upand squeeze it through the bars on the grate.

As they examine the reeking object, Freak mentions that he saw one of Tony D.’s gang stuffit down in the sewer that morning. Inside the purse, he and Max find a wallet. Althoughthere is no money inside, there is an identification card with the name Loretta Lee. Freak

Chapters 11 and 12 Summary

immediately concludes that Loretta must be a “damsel in distress” and vows to pursue thematter further the very next morning.

Freak and Max discover that Loretta Lee lives in the New Tenements, a seedy establishmentirreverently dubbed the “New Testaments.” Max has specifically been forbidden to go there.Freak convinces him that since they are on a quest it will be all right to disobey in this case,so the boys venture into the neighborhood, a “big, falling­apart place with a bunch ofapartments” that look “busted up” and sad.

When they find the address, Freak begins to “reconsider this particular quest” because theenvironment is so dismal, but Max hesitates, and the apartment door is opened by a slovenly,“scrawny, yellow­haired woman.” After cussing them out, the woman calls loudly to hercompanion, “Iggy, come here and see this!” A “big hairy dude” with tattoos and a huge beergut joins her at the door, demanding to know who sent Max and Freak. The woman, staringat Max, remarks that he looks very familiar.

Max realizes that the woman is Loretta Lee, and the man is Iggy Lee, the leader of anotorious motorcycle gang. When Freak says that they found Loretta’s purse and tosses it tothe couple, Iggy orders the boys inside, where he regards them harshly and asks for theirnames. Loretta suddenly realizes why Max looks familiar to her. She and Iggy had knownMax’s father; with this information, they deduce that “the midget or dwarf or whatever heis” must belong to Gwen, whom they remember too.

Loretta and Iggy begin reminiscing about “Killer Kane,” recalling “what a tough hombre”he was. Loretta mentions that Kane is in prison for life, but Iggy says he might be gettingout someday because “life ain’t life.”

Iggy then orders the boys to leave. Before they do, Loretta grabs Freak and rubs herknuckles on his head for luck. She then cruelly tells him that his father was a magician: “assoon as he heard the magic words ‘birth defect,’ he disappeared.”

Max runs back home with Freak as fast as he can. Later, Freak affirms that what Loretta saidabout his father is true. Max and Freak never talk about “good old Killer Kane.”

September arrives, and Max dreads the start of school, even though this year he will be in allthe “smart classes” with Freak. Freak has made the Fair Gwen go in and talk to theadministration, arguing that it would be good for him to have someone with him all day tohelp him get around. Grim and Gram sign papers giving their permission for this to happen;as the special classes Max has always been in have not done him any good, they reason that“nothing else has worked, maybe what [Max] needs is a friend.”

Chapters 13 and 14 Summary

On the first day of school, when Max walks down the hall with Freak on his shoulders, theother kids hardly notice because they are all wrapped up in “looking and acting cool.” InEnglish class, however, there is a new teacher who asks Max to stand and tell the class abouthis summer. Max freezes because “getting up in the class and saying stuff” is not somethinghe can do. Chaos ensues as the other kids begin teasing him mercilessly, and the noviceteacher is powerless to stop them. Things are finally brought back under control when Freakclimbs on his desk and shouts for order.

In the silence that follows, the teacher asks Freak, “You must be Kevin, right?” Freakresponds, “Sometimes, I am...sometimes I’m more than Kevin,” and to illustrate his point heclimbs back up on Max’s shoulders. Steering Max around the classroom, Freak raises his fistin the air and chants, “Freak the Mighty! Freak the Mighty!” and soon the entire class joinsin; Max thinks this is “pretty cool.”

Max and Freak are subsequently sent to the principal’s office. Max does not recall exactlywhat Freak tells the principal, but fortunately she falls for it.

By October, everything seems to be going well at school for Max and Freak. The two ofthem are “like this unit”; Max helps Freak get around everywhere by carrying him on hisshoulders, and Freak assists Max with his schoolwork. The arrangement is producingsurprisingly positive results. If Max does not know an answer, Freak tells him what it is “ina way he can understand.” Max’s reading skills tutor is amazed with his progress, and hisregular teachers find that if they do not require him to speak in front of the class but insteadtest him in a one­on­one setting, he can usually provide the proper responses, which proveshe is quite capable of learning.

On Friday the thirteenth of that month, however, two catastrophic things happen. First, Maxis called to the office and Freak is not allowed to go with him. Max is terrified that he isgoing to be placed back in the learning disabled class and vows to run away if this issuggested, but the real reason for his summons by the principal is much worse. The principalinforms Max that a request has been forwarded to the school by the parole board on behalfof his father, but the mere mention of his absent parent causes Max to go into a hysterical fit.When the principal is finally able to calm him, Max finds himself hunched in the corner ofthe room and does not remember how he got there. He fears that he may have hit the schoolnurse, who is crying, and wonders what else he is capable of doing without realizing it.

Later, in the cafeteria, something even worse happens. Freak is eating one of his favoritefoods, “American chop suey,” when his face suddenly gets “all red and swollen up” and hecannot breathe. Max runs to get the school nurse, who ministers to the victim. Fortunately,by the time the ambulance comes, Freak seems to be all right again. The principal comes torestrain Max when he tries to get into the ambulance with his friend. When she expresses

Chapters 15 and 16 Summary

sympathy for him because of the traumatic day he has had, Max immediately says that it isnot him who needs comfort, it is Freak. Touched by his selflessness, the principalthoughtfully considers Max for a moment and says, “You’re going to be okay, MaxwellKane.”

Freak is upbeat when he comes home from the hospital the next day. He refers to whathappened to him the day before as a “minor incident...easily corrected by biogenicintervention.” He explains that his problem is that he is “growing on the inside but not onthe outside.” Freak says that he is looking forward to getting “a whole new body.”According to his physician, Dr. Spivak, this might need to happen “in a year or two.”

At Christmas vacation, Max overhears an uncharacteristically heated argument between hisgrandparents. Grim wants to get a gun but Gram is vehemently against it. Max figures outthat the reason Grim feels they need protection is because of Killer Kane, his father. Hissuspicions are confirmed when Grim comes to the down under and tells Max that his fatheris up for parole. Grim has taken the precaution of getting a restraining order against the man,assuring Max that “if he does try to come here, they’ll send him back to prison.” AlthoughGrim tells Max that “everything is going to be okay,” he makes his grandson promise to stayin the house for the next few days.

Freak and the Fair Gwen spend Christmas Eve with Max, Grim, and Gram. After awonderful supper and time spent listening to Grim tell stories about Christmases when hewas a kid, everyone gathers to open gifts. Grim receives a woolly sweater from Gram, andGram gets a bracelet made of shells from Max. Max gives Freak a thoughtfully chosen“gizmo” made up of “a whole bunch of little screwdrivers and wrenches and even amagnifying glass.” Gram gives the Fair Gwen a beautiful, dark red scarf that matches theblouse she is wearing. Finally, when it is Max’s turn to open a gift, he chooses the one fromFreak.

The gift to Max from Freak, of course, is unique, packed in a pyramid­shaped box coveredwith the Sunday comics. Freak excitedly tells Max to take all the paper off first because asthere is a “special way to open it.” Following the arrows drawn on the sides of the pyramid,Max gets to a sign that says, “PRESS HERE AND BE AMAZED.”

When Max pushes at the spot indicated, all four sides of the pyramid, which is made ofpieces of cardboard taped and clipped together into a mechanical masterpiece, fold down atthe same time. Inside the pyramid is a book Freak has made—it is a dictionary of all hisfavorite words, with definitions that evidence his distinctive brand of quirky humor. Gettingthat dictionary from Freak is Max’s favorite part of Christmas.

Chapters 17 and 18 Summary

That night, Max is dreaming about “a little snowman who looks like Freak” when he isawakened by the sound of someone breathing. A giant hand covers his face, and the voice ofKiller Kane ominously whispers, “I came back...like I promised.”

Max listens, “paralyzed,” as his father whispers that he has come to get his son, whose mindhas been “poisoned against” him. Killer Kane swears that he “never killed anybody” andannounces that they are leaving on an “adventure.” He forces Max out into the snow withouteven giving him time to get a jacket. Everything seems “just make­believe” to Max, and hedoes not resist. When they are standing under a streetlight a few blocks away, Killer Kanestudies his son and is amazed at how much Max resembles him. As they make their waydown the quiet streets, Max is overcome by a sense of dreadful amazement at the raw powerof his father. He senses despairingly that “no one can ever beat him, not even the braveLancelot.”

Max is not surprised when he realizes that his father’s destination is the New Testaments.Loretta Lee opens the apartment door for them. When they are inside, Iggy bolts the doorshut behind them and closes the shades. Loretta has been drinking. Killer Kane, whose realname is Kenny, reprimands Iggy about her condition. Iggy is clearly afraid of him. Kennyorders Iggy to get some food for “me and my boy.” While Iggy is busy frying burgers in thekitchen, Loretta passes out on the couch. After the meal, Iggy tells Kenny, “Any time youwant, I’ll show you that place I told you about.” Kenny, standing up with Max in tow,indicates that he wants to see the place immediately.

Iggy takes Max and his father down a back alley to another apartment whose door has been“busted in.” He explains that it belongs to an “old bat” who is away visiting her sister for theholidays. When Iggy leaves, Kenny Kane sits Max down so they can talk “man to man.”

Kenny tells Max he understands that “a boy who don’t know his own father might be dumbenough to run away.” He then ties Max’s feet and hands, looping the end of the rope aroundhis own waist so he will be alerted if Max should try to escape. Kenny then goes to sleep,advising Max that he should do the same, but a little while later, he wakes Max to assertagain that he “never killed anybody.” He then asks his son if Grim and Gram had given himthe presents and letters he sent over the years. Max, of course, has not received anything,and Kenny uses this as proof that Grim and Gram hate him “on account of [his] appearance,and because he wasn’t good enough for their precious daughter.” Max’s father goes on aboutthe injustices that have been done to him, and he swears on a Bible that he did not murderMax’s mother. After this conversation, Killer Kane goes back to sleep, but Max lies awakeuntil the sun comes up, trying not to think about “things [he doesn’t] want to remember.”

Chapters 19 and 20 Summary

In the morning, Loretta Lee comes over with a box of pizza. Kenny is clearly edgy and tellsher to put the box down and get Iggy. Loretta looks at Max, who is still trussed up, thenleaves through the back of the apartment.

When Loretta is gone, Kenny tells Max that they “can’t eat anything touched by her dirtyhands.” They search the cupboards and end up feasting on cornflakes and water. Killer Kanetells Max that this is only “a temporary situation” and outlines plans that will allow them to“live like kings if [they] play [their] cards right.” Kenny plans to get a bus and masqueradeas “The Reverend Kenneth David Kane.” According to his plan, he and Max will tour thecountry, telling people his story—that of “a bad man who has redeemed himself.” Cynicallycounting on the gullibility of the good­hearted populace, Kane figures they will collect a lotof donations because “folks will give to a man of God.”

Suddenly the blue lights of a cop car start flashing against the curtains. Killer Kane grabsMax by the neck and shoves him to the floor. The car eventually goes away, but Iggy comesinto the room and announces that the police had come looking for Max. When Kennydemands suspiciously how they had known to come to Iggy’s place, Iggy nervously tellshim that “it was that crippled midget kid...they had him out in the car.” Max then is forced totell his father about how he and Freak found Loretta’s purse, and Iggy reminds Kenny thatFreak “belongs to Gwen,” who had been a friend of Max’s mother.

Killer Kane shoves Iggy into a chair and begins to plan how to escape the police. Afterthinking, he tells Iggy to get him a firearm and a vehicle for transportation. Iggy sneaks alook at Max “like he’s trying to tell [him] something” then leaves hurriedly, “walkingbackward out of the room.”

Max’s father decides that they will hide out in an abandoned building on the other side ofthe alley until Iggy gets them a car. The inside of the building, which has been gutted byfire, is “black and wet and dripping,” and the stairs to the basement are rotting away. KillerKane forces Max down the treacherous steps and ties him up agains “this old busted­upboiler.” He then puts a gag around his mouth so he cannot call for help and slips back up thestairs.

Left alone, Max attempts to get loose from his bonds, but his hands are swollen from thetightness of the ropes, and he is unsuccessful. After awhile, he hears someone on the stepsand is much relieved when Loretta Lee appears with a flashlight. Loretta removes the gagfrom Max’s mouth, then she begins to work on the ropes around his hands and feet. Theknots are tight, however, and her hands are shaking; Loretta finally is able to free Max bycutting his restraints on the ragged edge of the boiler.

Chapters 21 and 22 Summary

Just when she manages to get Max’s feet loose, Killer Kane bursts out of the darkness andstarts “squeezing [Loretta’s] neck...[with his] two big hands.” Even though Max knows “noone can stop him,” he tries anyway, desperately trying to push himself between them.Reality blurs in Max’s mind, and visions of his father’s hands around his mother’s neckjuxtapose themselves with the scene before him. Unable to get his father to let go of Loretta,Max begins screaming:

I saw you kill Mom...I saw you do it! You killed her and I’ll never forget, notever!

When Max’s words begin to register in Killer Kane’s head, he releases Loretta and puts hishands around Max’s neck instead. He tells his son that he couldn’t possibly remember thosethings because he had been only four years old, but Max insists, “I can’t ever forget it, nomatter how much I try.”

To prove that he recalls everything, Max tells Killer Kane exactly what he had been wearingwhen he killed Max’s mother. Max describes how he had tried to stop him but could not andhow Kane had carried him back into his room afterward and told him he had been dreaming.Realizing that his son really does remember what happened, Killer Kane reluctantly mutters,“I have to clean this up,” and tightens his hands around Max’s neck. Just when Max is aboutto lose consciousness, he hears Freak’s “faraway” voice commanding, “Put your hands up,villain!”

Killer Kane looks up to see little Freak pointing “a squirt gun, one of those big blastermodels,” right into his face. Freak boldly announces that the gun is loaded with sulfuric acidand sprays Kane right in the eyes. When Killer Kane starts screaming and “scrubbing at hiseyes,” Max grabs Freak and runs for the stairs as fast as he can. The moldering stairs arebreaking under his feet, and Killer Kane is “howling in rage” right behind him, but Maxmanages to break through to sunlight, where about “a million cops” are waiting.

Triumphantly, Freak shouts, “It worked! He fell for it!” and reveals that the squirt gun hadbeen filled with “soap and vinegar and curry powder,” not sulfuric acid. Killer Kane is still“rubbing frantic at his eyes” as he is taken away by the police. In all the confusion, Maxfinally gets the cops to understand that Loretta Lee is still down in the cellar; they bring herout and she is “still breathing.” Everyone is there, making “a big, sloppy fuss,” and as theFair Gwen carries Freak away, he hollers, “Freak the Mighty strikes again!”

Things are quite chaotic in the aftermath of Max’s kidnapping and the capture of KillerKane. Max has to spend a great deal of time at the police station, telling his story over andover. Everyone says that this time “they’ve got Killer Kane where they want him”; the list of

his latest violations is long and grave. Loretta Lee was “hurt pretty bad,” but although Kanebroke a bone in her neck, her prognosis is good and it looks like she will be all right.

Gram will no longer let Max sleep in the down under, and the Fair Gwen “just about[throws] a fit” when it is all over because Freak had disobeyed a “direct order” in sneakingout to rescue Max. She feels especially anxious about the whole thing and warns her sonrepeatedly:

No more crazy adventures or dangerous quests...you have to be careful...extracareful.

Freak has trouble catching his breath more frequently now and has to go into “the medicalresearch place” with greater regularity. When Max asks him when he will be getting his new“robot body,” Freak always answers evasively, “The bionic research continues...the workgoes on.”

Freak seems to love the attention he and Max get at school as the result of their experience.Max, however, is completely unnerved at the thought of testifying at Killer Kane’s trial andwould “just as soon forget about the whole thing.” Fortunately, Killer Kane strikes a bargainwith the court, so Max does not have to testify against him. Kane pleads guilty and willserve the rest of his original sentence plus ten more years; he will be an old man when he isfinally released. The incident with Killer Kane torments Max in another way as well: Max isworried that he might turn out to be like his father and is terrified at the thought of growingup.

Freak and Max are “walking high” around the neighborhood on the day school gets out.From his perch atop Max’s shoulders, Freak contrasts the lush, late spring greenery to hismemories of the Ice Age, “when glaciers covered the earth.” Max points out that Freakcouldn’t possibly recall what it was like then because he was not even born, but Freak, in atestimony to the power of imagination, sagely responds:

If you want to, you can remember anything, whether it happened or not...youdon’t need a time machine if you know how to remember.

Freak celebrates his thirteenth birthday a few days after the end of school. This year it isreally two birthdays because Freak the Mighty is almost a year old. Because Freak is notsupposed to get overexcited, the Fair Gwen puts on just a small party for him, inviting onlyGrim, Gram, and Max. Freak receives a computer with a modem for his birthday, which willallow him to go to school over the telephone “if he has to stay home for some reason.”When Max wonders why his friend would have to stay home, the Fair Gwen says it is “justin case.”

Chapters 23-25 Summary

Freak barely touches his birthday supper, and when the cake comes out, he asks Max toblow out the candles for him while he makes the wish. Max is a little perplexed when henotices that Freak does not eat his cake either. When the festivities are over, Max goes intothe kitchen to help Gram and the Fair Gwen clean up while Freak shows Grim how to play3­D chess on the new computer. Suddenly, Grim shouts Freak’s name, and everyone comesrunning. Freak is having a seizure. They call an ambulance; Max anxiously runs back andforth out to the street to flag down the ambulance when it comes, but the Fair Gwen calmshim, telling him there is nothing they can do now but wait.

Although he cannot visit Freak the next day, Max goes to the hospital anyway. He runs intothe Fair Gwen, who greets him tearfully. Gwen tells Max that Freak wants to see him despitethe fact that he is not allowed visitors. Because Freak is so insistent, Dr. Spivak has givenpermission for Max to see him for a little while.

Max is surprised when the Fair Gwen takes him into the intensive care unit at the regularhospital instead of the Medical Research Building in the back. Freak looks very small on thebed, and he has a hole in his throat that allows him to breathe. Although his voice is faintand “whistly,” he seems to be as sassy as ever—but when Max asks when he will be cominghome, Freak gravely responds, “I’m not coming home...not in my present manifestation.”

Freak then gives Max a book similar to the dictionary he made for him, except all the pagesare blank. Freak tells Max that he wants him to “fill it up with [their] adventures.” WhenMax protests that he cannot write, Freak says that he would do it himself but he “won’t havethe time.” He tells Max just to “write it all down like [he’s] talking...the story of Freak theMighty.”

Freak then begins to cough; Dr. Spivak and several nurses come in, and Max has to leave.The next morning, Max runs back to the hospital to see how his friend is doing. When hegets there, all the nurses are crying, and Max must face the truth that Freak is dead.

Screaming incoherently, Max turns and races down the halls, “ready to just blast anybodywho dares touch” him. He runs until he gets to the Medical Research Building and breaksthrough the glass on the door. When security officers finally corner him, Dr. Spivak arrives.As she bandages his hand, Max accuses her of lying to Freak about the new body he wouldget from the Bionics Unit, but Dr. Spivak quietly tells him, “You couldn’t lie to Kevin.”

Dr. Spivak tells Max that Freak had known “from a very young age that he wasn’t going tohave a very long life.” She conjectures that, despite his courageous acceptance of his fate, hehad needed “something to hope for” and so had “invented this rather remarkable fantasy”about receiving a bionic transplant. When Max finally asks, “What happened to him really?”Dr. Spivak answers simply, “His heart just got too big for his body.”

Max withdraws into the down under “for days and days.” He refuses to come out even forFreak’s funeral or when the Fair Gwen moves away. For a long time, he just mopes around,feeling like “a balloon...[that] somebody had let the air out of.” Grim and Gram gently try toreach Max, but to no avail. Finally, in September, Grim issues an ultimatum: Max will begoing back to school if Grim has to physically drag him there.

Max returns to school and “hate[s] every minute of it.” He lets no one near him, despisingtheir pity and rebuffing their efforts to be kind. One day in winter, Max runs into LorettaLee. Loretta is still wearing a brace on her neck. She tells him that Gwen is living inCalifornia and asks what he is doing these days. When Max listlessly replies, “Nothing,” sheregards him for a long time, then says, “Nothing is a drag, kid. Think about it.”

Surprisingly, Max does think about it, and that night he pulls out the empty book Freak hadgiven him. Although he is still convinced that he hasn’t “got a brain,” Max begins writingthe story of “Freak the Mighty.” He keeps writing “for months and months,” and by the timehe is finished, it is spring once more. The world is “really and truly green all over,” and Maxfinds that he is finally “feeling okay about remembering.”