Summary: Chapter 223

 

Christopher describes ads and talks about the lack of need for holidays and travel . 

 

Summary: Chapter 227

 

Christopher sits in for five hours on the platform before realising that Toby has run away. Christopher sees Toby between the tracks among some other mice and immediately climbs onto the tracks to get him. 

 

The sound of a train approaching gets louder and louder as a man runs forward to haul Christopher, clutching Toby, back onto the platform. 

 

The man shouts at Christopher for being so reckless, and a lady approaches to ask if there is anything she can do to help. 

 

Christopher demands that she back away, revealing that he has his Swiss Army knife. The man and lady both leave Christopher alone and get on the next train.

 

Multiple trains pass by Christopher until he  decides to board. Christopher stays on the train until Willesden Junction, where he gets off. 

 

He approaches a shop and asks for directions. The shopkeeper sells him a book called London AZ Street Atlas and Index for £2.95. 

 

He uses the atlas to get to Mother’s address, he arrives but no answer after Christopher rung the bell. 

 

He sits down to wait. At 11:32 p.m. he recognises Mother’s voice as she approaches the apartment. 

 

Mother attempts to hug Christopher but he pushes her away. She makes a fan out of her fingers instead and they touch hands. Mr. Shears is with Mother. Christopher tells her about his frightening journey from Swindon.

 

Inside the flat Mother draws Christopher a bath. She sits down next to the bath and asks why Christopher never wrote to her. 

 

Christopher states that Father kept all the letters hidden in his closet and said Mother was dead. 

 

A policeman comes to the door of the apartment and explains that Father reported Christopher as a runaway. 

 

The policeman asks Christopher if he wants to go back to Father or if he prefers to stay with Mother. Christopher chooses to stay with Mother, and the policeman leaves. 

 

Christopher goes to bed on an air mattress in the spare room. He awakens to the sound of Father yelling in the living room at 2:31 a.m. Father, Mother and Mr Shears, all have a heated argument. 

 

Father bursts through the door of the spare room to find Christopher, who has his Swiss Army knife open and ready. 

 

Father cries and apologises and spreads his fingers in a fan, but Christopher refuses to touch him. 

 

The policeman comes back and escorts Father from the flat. Christopher goes back to sleep.

 

Summary: Chapter 229

 

That night, Christopher dreams a virus has killed nearly everyone on Earth. A person catches the virus by looking at someone that has it, even if the infected person is on television. 

 

At the end of the dream he goes home to Father’s house in Swindon, only with Father not there. He makes himself Gobi Aloo Sag with red food colouring, watches a video on the solar system, plays computer games, and heads to bed. When he awakes from the dream he feels relieved.

Summary: Chapter 233

 

Christopher wakes up and eats some breakfast, Mr. Shears and Mother argue over how long Christopher can stay. 

 

Mother takes leave from work to look after Christopher. She takes him shopping for clothes, but she has to take Christopher home when he becomes frightened in a shop. 

 

Christopher explains to Mother that he must return to Swindon to take his A-level math test, but Mother says she doesn’t know if that’s possible. 

 

Christopher can’t sleep, so around 2 a.m. he goes out into the street and goes for a walk. Mother comes out of the apartment shouting his name, worried that he has run away. 

 

She locates him and makes him promise never to leave the flat on his own again.

Mother is later fired from her job for taking leave. Christopher wants to be taken back to Swindon to take his A-level test. Mother insists the test can be postponed. 

 

Christopher attempts to forecast the day by looking out the window. He sees five red cars in a row followed by four yellow cars in a row, therefore invalidating his system. 

 

Mother says she has phoned Mrs. Gascoyne to postpone his A-level test till next year. Christopher screams at the news.

 

 

Every night Mr. Shears argues with Mother, Christopher takes the little radio from the kitchen and puts it between stations so the white noise drowns out the frustration.

 

The arguing keeps Christopher from thinking about the A-level test. During one night Mr. Shears comes into the spare room and wakes Christopher up. Christopher can see that Mr. Shears has been drinking. 

 

Mr. Shears accuses him of not caring about the people around him. Mother pulls Mr. Shears out of the room before he can say anymore.

 

The following morning, Mother and Christopher leave for Swindon, taking Mr. Shears’s car. Mother explains that if they stayed in London any longer someone would get hurt. 

 

They travel to Father’s house. Christopher plays Minesweeper in his room. He hears Father arrive home from work, so he quickly pushes his bed up against his bedroom door to prevent Father from entering. 

 

His parent’s argue in the living room. Father leaves to stay with Rhodri for a few weeks. Christopher again begs to take his A-level test, but Mother has already postponed it. 

 

Christopher compares the feeling he gets at hearing this to holding your thumb against a hot radiator. That evening, he does not eat and has trouble sleeping.

 

The following day, Mother takes Christopher to school. Siobhan informs him that Mrs. Gascoyne still has his A-level test on her desk, and that they are going to attempt to get Reverend Peters to come over so Christopher can take his test sooner. 

 

Christopher is clearly happy but also tired from not sleeping the night before. That same afternoon , Christopher begins his first section of the exam. He reads through it and has trouble thinking of the answers. 

 

He feels so frustrated that he wants to stab someone with his Swiss Army knife, but he counts prime numbers in his head in an attempt to calm down. 

 

He rushes to the test. That night, Father comes to the house again, so Christopher hides in the garden until Father leaves.

 

The next day, Christopher takes part two of the exam. That evening, Mr. Shears throws a large box of Mother’s belongings on the lawn, then gets in his car and drives away.

 

Christopher finishes the exam the following day. Father enters the house that night and asks Christopher how the exam went. Christopher doesn’t answer until Mother prods him to. 

 

The following week, Father wants Mother to move out. She gets a job at a garden center and a doctor prescribes her medication for her depression. 

 

She and Christopher move into a room in a brick house that Christopher isn’t happy with,  as the bed is in the kitchen and that they share the toilet with strangers. 

 

He has to stay at Father’s house after school each day because Mother doesn’t get off work until 5:30 p.m. 

 

Christopher locks himself in his room so that Father can’t get in, Father attempts talks to him through the door but Christopher refuses to answer. 

 

Toby passes away due to old age at two years and seven months. Christopher buries him in the soil in a plastic pot for plants because Mother’s house doesn’t have a garden.

 

One day after school Father sits Christopher down. Father explains to Christopher that his trust is more important to him than anything else. 

 

He wants to begin rebuilding that trust, Father gives Christopher a two-month-old golden retriever. Christopher names her Sandy. The puppy has to stay at Father’s house because there isn’t enough space in the one-room apartment Christopher shares with Mother, but Christopher can visit whenever he wants. 

 

The following week, Christopher is told that he got an A on his A-level math test. He spends some nights in Father’s house and feels okay with Sandy sleeping on the bed. 

 

He plants a vegetable patch in the garden with Father. He then buys a book to study his next set of A-level tests.

 

Christopher sets himself some goals for the future: firstly to get A grades in A-level further maths and secondly an A in A-level Physics, so that he can attend university in another town. 

 

This means he will live in a flat with a garden and a proper toilet with Sandy, his books, and his computer.  He plans to graduate with a first-class honour degree and become a scientist. 

 

He thinks that he can do all of these things because he went to London on his own, solved the mystery of who killed Wellington, found his mother, and wrote a book. Which means he can do anything.