Something Wicked This Way Comes

Part I: Arrivals

Chapters 1-15

Chapter One

• A seller of lightening rods visits Green Town, Illinois.

• He sees Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway lying on the lawn in front of Will's house.

• His name is Tom Fury, and he helps protect houses and residents from storms.

• Tom Fury feels that Jim's house will be hit.

Chapter Two

• The boys are heading to the library for the evening.

• Jim pauses on the steps because he thinks he hears organ music.

• Will sees his father Charles William Halloway, the janitor in the library.

• Mr. Holloway says there are two types of people: white hats and black hats.

Chapter Three

• Charles Halloway thinks about Will and Jim, and thinks about how boys are different.

• He says Will and Jim are good representations of the types of people there are in life.

• Jim will see trouble coming and get out of the way.

• Will won’t see it and will be left dealing with the trouble.

Chapter Four

• Will and Jim run through the town, and at nine P.M. it is deserted.

• They see Mr. Crosetti standing outside of his barber shop . He is crying

• They laugh at him, and he asks them if they can smell what he can.

• He smells cotton candy and other carnival type food.

• Mr. Crosetti points out that only carnivals sell cotton candy.

Chapter Five

• Charles Halloway sees a man putting up posters inside an empty store.

• Halloway sees into the store where a sign advertises "Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show."

• Inside there is a large block of ice, which the poster advertises as the most beautiful woman in the world.

• The ice sculpture looks like a hollow in the shape of a woman.

Chapter Six

• Jim stops at Hickory Street. He calls a house “The Theater”.

• The fifth house on the street has a window.

• One day the boys looked through to see people undressing.

• Will did not like “The Theater”, but Jim could not resist it.

Chapter Seven

• The boys see paper falling from the sky.

• It is an advertisement for Cooger and Dark's show, and it mentions all sorts of strange people.

• It mentions an illustrated man, which Jim explains is more than just a tattooed man.

• They realize that the carnival must be coming to town that night.

Chapter Eight

• Will wonders why his father is so sad and his mother is so happy. He feels they are always like that.

• He sees that his father has a carnival flier, and later, he hears his dad burn the flier.

• Will understands that the carnival worries his father.

Chapter Nine

• Jim Nightshade goes to bed, but his mom comes to the room.

• He tells her he never plans on having children or anything that can hurt him.

Chapter Ten

• The lightning-rod salesman, who is still in town, sees the woman in the ice.

• She symbolizes great beauty to him.• He wonders what would happen if the

ice melted. • He steps in and the door shuts.

Chapter Eleven

• At three in the morning, Will and Jim are awakened by the sound of a train.

• They hear a calliope (an organ).• Both boys look out at the train

with binoculars and realize it must be the carnival.

Chapter Twelve

• They follow the train and see a balloon with someone in its basket.

• A tall man in a dark suit gets off the train and signals.

• Immediately afterward, people begin setting up, but they do not talk.

• This makes Will scared. • The moon is covered by clouds, and

when the darkness lifts, the tents are set up, and the field is empty.

• The boys run home, scared.

Chapter Thirteen

• Charles Halloway sees the carnival. • On the way home, he passes the store

where the lady in the ice had been.• The ice has melted into water, and

there are only a few shards of ice and some hair in the ice.

Chapter Fourteen

• Charles Halloway thinks that three in the morning is a special time.

• Three in the morning, when despair is deepest, is when the train comes.

Chapter Fifteen

• The next morning, Will and Jim head out to check out the carnival, and to their surprise, it seems normal.

• While walking around, they see Miss Foley, their seventh grade teacher.

• She is looking for her nephew, Robert, and heads off to the Mirror Maze.

• Will is afraid of the maze and tells her not to go in. She goes in and panics, feeling lost.

• The boys get her out, but she is crying.• She tells them that they must go find the little

girl who is lost in there.

Quotes To Know

• They left him behind in a wind that very faintly smelled of licorice and cotton candy.

• No carnival’s coming this late. It can’t!• Three a.m…the soul’s midnight. The

tide goes out, the soul ebbs. And a train arrives at an hour of despair…Why?

• Poor girl, oh the poor lost sweet…• She looked like myself, many, many

years ago.

For Tomorrow

• Study your notes for a quiz. It will focus on the Prologue up to Chapter 15.

• Which boy do you like better so far and why? Which would you rather have as a friend and why?