Search all of eNotes Search rows Navigate Study Guide Introduction

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

The novel Freak the Mighty tells the story of one defining year in the boys’ lives. It follows them through their first meeting, their summer adventures, their return to school, and even Max’s Christmas Eve kidnapping at the hands of his murderous father. Although the boys are 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 face the world without his best friend.

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

Freak the Mighty Summary

Max and Kevin met for the first time when they were both in day care. Max was an angry kid called Kicker because he kicked everyone, while Kevin called himself Robot Man because of the leg braces he had to wear. Then Kevin stopped coming to day care, and the boys 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’s grandparents’ house, where he lived in the basement. The boys meet again when Max helps Kevin 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 into Tony D. and his gang of teenage thugs. Kevin teases them, and the situation potentially turns dangerous 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 friends find them again. Kevin guides Max as the pair runs away, leaving Tony and his gang stranded 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 partnership between the two boys. Every morning Kevin comes over to rouse Max, who carries Kevin all 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 Max to the hospital’s medical research building, claiming that the hospital staff is developing robot 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. and dress all in black. Kevin then guides Max to a sewer grate where a purse has fallen. They return it to the owner the next day, which means going into the tenement housing on the far side of the pond, a poor and crime­ridden place. The purse’s owner, Loretta Lee, lives with Iggy 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 is currently in jail.

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

Soon after this, Max is called to the principal’s office, where he learns that his father will soon 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 into the house and kidnaps Max. Kenny takes him first to Iggy and Loretta’s place in the tenements, and then to an old woman’s home nearby. Kenny claims that Max’s grandparents have poisoned his mind against his father, so Kenny keeps Max tied up and explains what Max’s new life will be like.

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

Suddenly Kevin shows up with a squirt gun that he claims is filled with acid. He squirts Kenny 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. The rest of the school year goes well, but once school is out again, Kevin has a seizure on his birthday. He is taken to the hospital, and it is some time before Max gets to visit. While he is visiting, Kevin has another attack and Max has to leave. When Max returns the next day, Kevin has died. Max is distraught and punches through the glass door to the medical research 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 had just been a dream of Kevin’s to help him cope with his condition. Max withdraws from the world, grieving the death of Freak the Mighty for about a year, but eventually heals as he writes down the story of their adventures and friendship.

Freak the Mighty Chapter Summaries Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

In the summer before their eighth grade year, Freak moves in down the block from the house where 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 are confused. As Freak says:

Remembering is a great invention of the mind, and if you try hard enough you can remember 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 quickly earned the nickname “Kicker.” Max remembers that Freak had not attended daycare regularly; when he did show up, he got around on crutches or with “shiny braces strapped to his crooked legs.” Little Freak would pretend that he was Robot Man and quickly made it clear 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 or something,” when he caught a glimpse of “this yellow­haired kid scowling at [him] from one of those cripple vans.” By that time, Mad Max, as he was most commonly called, had a variety of nicknames; ironically, the name he hated most was his real name, Maxwell. Max had once overheard his grandparents whispering about how much “Maxwell was getting to look like Him.” He knows that Grim and Gram were talking about his father, whom they referred 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 down under.” 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 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 concludes that 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” in his backyard when he sees the moving van. He notices Freak’s mother, who “looks like some kind of movie star” and seems vaguely familiar. His attention is then drawn to “this crippled­up yellow­haired midget kid strutting around the sidewalk,” imperiously giving orders to the men unloading the van. Freak has a “normal­sized head,” but his body is twisted, and “shorter than a yardstick.” He is on crutches, and when he sees Max, he points a crutch at him, hollering, “Identify yourself, earthling!” Max, who by now recognizes Freak as “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 his eye that the “little dude” is serious, Max hastily retreats back to his room “down under.”

Chapters 3 and 4 Summary

In the dim down under, Max thinks about “this crippled little humanoid” who has just reentered his life, and after a while he goes back outside to “check [things] out.” Max finds Freak standing under a tree behind his new home, furiously trying to jump up and hit a branch with his crutch. Frustrated, the little boy crawls over under the steps and laboriously pulls out a standard American Flyer red wagon. When he gets it under the tree, he climbs up and “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 the tree and goes over to get it down. Staying clear of the flailing crutch, he offers the “bird­ thing” to Freak, who happily explains that it is “an ornithopter...an experimental device propelled by flapping wings.” Max, who does not understand half the words the little boy is using, is amazed at how smart Freak is. Freak winds up the elastic band that propels the mechanical bird and lets it go, and Max chases it and brings it back; the two boys continue in 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 and mentions the down under. Picking up the handle of the wagon, he tows Freak over; Freak sits 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 of breath. He is impressed with Max’s living quarters. When Max explains about Grim and Gram, he notes that “Grim” must be “a sobriquet for [Max’s] grandfather, based on his demeanor.” This is too much for Max, who clearly does not understand what his new friend is talking about. Freak merrily apologizes for his vocabulary and explains that “sobriquet means ‘nickname,’ and demeanor means “expression.’” Max, who has noticed that Freak refers to his mother as “Fair Gwen of Air,” asks if this is a nickname too. Trying to suppress his laughter, Freak says that he is actually calling his mom, whose name is Gwen, “‘Fair Guinevere,’ from the legend of King Arthur.” Freak enthusiastically goes on to tell Max the story of Arthur, who was “this wimpy little kid” who was 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 metal armor to make them invincible when they went out on quests “to slay dragons and monsters.” He says that the knights were “the first human version of robots.” When Max says that he thought robots were not real, Freak heatedly argues that “robotics, the science of designing and building functional robots, is a huge industry.” Freak is amazingly well­ informed about the subject of robotics. He says that although he watches Star Trek on television, he reads a lot of books as well so he can “figure out what’s real.” Max becomes uncomfortable 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 hulking presence, grabs Freak, and “almost runs home.” It is clear to Max that the Fair Gwen is terrified of him.

Chapters 5 and 6 Summary

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

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

He is soon interrupted by Gram, who knocks on his door and says she has just had a call from Gwen Avery, who wants to apologize to him. Gwen had been stunned to see how big Max has gotten and thinks she may have offended him by her reaction. Gram explains that Gwen had been a good friend of Max’s mother. She is “delighted” to know that he and her son, 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, and Gram responds gently that it would be “the right thing to do.” She tells Max that it was not him who scared Freak’s mother—but when Max asks, “Then who was it?” Gram evades the question and says she will “leave that to Gwen.” Dinner with Freak and his mother turns out to be “not so bad” after all. Gwen talks a mile a minute, telling Max that she remembers him as a baby, when she and his mother and their group had been living over in the tenements. Freak bluntly mentions the growing resemblance 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 outside in the backyard. Freak tells funny stories, and Max laughs so hard he chokes on his hot dog and ends up trying to sneeze it through his nose. Max has a great time and marvels at how happy he is when he goes back to the down under. To his surprise, however, when he lies on his bed, he is “crying like a baby.”

On the Fourth of July, Max is allowed to go to the fireworks display down by the millpond with Freak. On their way there, the town bully, Tony D. (“alias Blade”), and his gang of punks harass them. When Freak realizes their tormentors are not going to go away, he boldly stands up to Tony D., calling him a “cretin.” Fortunately, a police car comes by at just that moment, 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 had tried to fight Blade, he would have had to fight his gang too. Shocked at his own audacity in talking back to Tony D., Freak starts laughing so hard he falls over. Max reaches down to pick him up and is amazed at how light his little friend is. Later, when the fireworks have started and Freak is complaining that he cannot see, Max unthinkingly picks up his friend and sets him on his shoulders. Although he is “kind of trembly up there” at first, Freak is not at 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 the reactions that create the spectacular colors and formations behind the Fourth of July fireworks display. Max concludes that Freak is “possibly the smartest human being in the whole world.”

Chapters 7 and 8 Summary

With Freak still on his shoulders, Max heads over to the food carts when the fireworks are over. Freak marvels at the “amazing perspective” he gets on the world from sitting up so high, then he suddenly warns Max that Blade and his gang are coming after them. He directs his friend to an escape route with his little feet “like he’s digging into a horse.” Max runs at a full gallop through the crowd, but eventually Blade and his punks surround them. Not knowing 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 the millpond. 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. Turning around with difficulty because of the thick mud, which is up to his knees, Max sees that Blade is in trouble, with just his head above the water. When his “punksters” finally manage to rescue him, the angry and humiliated gang leader begins to throw rocks at Max and Freak.

As the rocks rain around them, Freak puts his fingers into his mouth and emits a whistle that is so loud and piercing it hurts Max’s ears. A passing cop car is alerted, and Blade and his punks run away. Max is so deeply entrenched in the mud that the cops have to use ropes to pull him out. When the two boys are safely back on the bank of the pond at last, one of the cops recognizes Max as “Kenny Kane’s boy” and wonders to his partner if “Old Killer Kane” is still in prison. When the policemen ask Freak for his name, the little boy, still on Max’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 “for rescuing the poor crippled midget kid.” Max thinks this is funny because, in his mind, Freak rescued 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 had and issues the usual warnings. To Max’s surprise, Grim actually seems proud of him and calls him “son” for the first time ever.

The summer on the whole turns out to be “pretty cool” in Max’s estimation. Freak comes over 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 other elements 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 the unknown.”

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

Chapters 9 and 10 Summary Freak and Max travel all over the neighborhood and beyond that summer, with Freak riding high on Max’s shoulders and using his little feet to steer. As they journey, Freak makes up stories that seem so real Max sometimes forgets where he actually is. One day, as they head off “yonder,” which “always lies over the next horizon,” Freak directs Max to an especially distant destination he calls “the Fortress.” It turns out that the Fortress is a new building added to the back of a hospital; the sign over the door of this building says “MEDICAL RESEARCH.”

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

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

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

One day, Freak comes to the down under with a very special quest in mind. He explains to Max that there is a treasure in the sewer and that they will have to wait until “optimum darkness” to search for it: specifically, three in the morning. Overcome with a sense of anticipation despite himself, Max does not sleep at all that night. Promptly at the appointed time, 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, Freak directs him to the storm drain a few blocks away. There, he imperiously orders Max to remove the grate covering the drain, but Max cannot budge it. Fortunately, Freak has prepared for this possibility; he brings out a “special retrieval device” he has made, which looks suspiciously like a bent paper clip on a string. Freak directs Max to drop the hook down. To Max’s surprise, it snags a “grotty old purse.” Together, the boys pull the purse up and 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 stuff it down in the sewer that morning. Inside the purse, he and Max find a wallet. Although there is no money inside, there is an identification card with the name Loretta Lee. Freak immediately concludes that Loretta must be a “damsel in distress” and vows to pursue the matter further the very next morning.

Chapters 11 and 12 Summary

Freak and Max discover that Loretta Lee lives in the New Tenements, a seedy establishment irreverently 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 of apartments” that look “busted up” and sad.

When they find the address, Freak begins to “reconsider this particular quest” because the environment 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 her companion, “Iggy, come here and see this!” A “big hairy dude” with tattoos and a huge beer gut joins her at the door, demanding to know who sent Max and Freak. The woman, staring at Max, remarks that he looks very familiar.

Max realizes that the woman is Loretta Lee, and the man is Iggy Lee, the leader of a notorious motorcycle gang. When Freak says that they found Loretta’s purse and tosses it to the couple, Iggy orders the boys inside, where he regards them harshly and asks for their names. Loretta suddenly realizes why Max looks familiar to her. She and Iggy had known Max’s father; with this information, they deduce that “the midget or dwarf or whatever he is” 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 getting out someday because “life ain’t life.”

Iggy then orders the boys to leave. Before they do, Loretta grabs Freak and rubs her knuckles on his head for luck. She then cruelly tells him that his father was a magician: “as soon 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 said about 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 all the “smart classes” with Freak. Freak has made the Fair Gwen go in and talk to the administration, arguing that it would be good for him to have someone with him all day to help 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.” On the first day of school, when Max walks down the hall with Freak on his shoulders, the other kids hardly notice because they are all wrapped up in “looking and acting cool.” In English class, however, there is a new teacher who asks Max to stand and tell the class about his summer. Max freezes because “getting up in the class and saying stuff” is not something he can do. Chaos ensues as the other kids begin teasing him mercilessly, and the novice teacher is powerless to stop them. Things are finally brought back under control when Freak climbs on his desk and shouts for order.

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

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

Chapters 13 and 14 Summary

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

On Friday the thirteenth of that month, however, two catastrophic things happen. First, Max is called to the office and Freak is not allowed to go with him. Max is terrified that he is going to be placed back in the learning disabled class and vows to run away if this is suggested, but the real reason for his summons by the principal is much worse. The principal informs Max that a request has been forwarded to the school by the parole board on behalf of 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 of the room and does not remember how he got there. He fears that he may have hit the school nurse, 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 favorite foods, “American chop suey,” when his face suddenly gets “all red and swollen up” and he cannot 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 to restrain Max when he tries to get into the ambulance with his friend. When she expresses sympathy for him because of the traumatic day he has had, Max immediately says that it is not him who needs comfort, it is Freak. Touched by his selflessness, the principal thoughtfully considers Max for a moment and says, “You’re going to be okay, Maxwell Kane.”

Freak is upbeat when he comes home from the hospital the next day. He refers to what happened to him the day before as a “minor incident...easily corrected by biogenic intervention.” He explains that his problem is that he is “growing on the inside but not on the 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 his grandparents. Grim wants to get a gun but Gram is vehemently against it. Max figures out that the reason Grim feels they need protection is because of Killer Kane, his father. His suspicions are confirmed when Grim comes to the down under and tells Max that his father is 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.” Although Grim tells Max that “everything is going to be okay,” he makes his grandson promise to stay in the house for the next few days.

Chapters 15 and 16 Summary

Freak and the Fair Gwen spend Christmas Eve with Max, Grim, and Gram. After a wonderful supper and time spent listening to Grim tell stories about Christmases when he was a kid, everyone gathers to open gifts. Grim receives a woolly sweater from Gram, and Gram 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 a magnifying glass.” Gram gives the Fair Gwen a beautiful, dark red scarf that matches the blouse she is wearing. Finally, when it is Max’s turn to open a gift, he chooses the one from Freak.

The gift to Max from Freak, of course, is unique, packed in a pyramid­shaped box covered with the Sunday comics. Freak excitedly tells Max to take all the paper off first because as there 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 of pieces of cardboard taped and clipped together into a mechanical masterpiece, fold down at the same time. Inside the pyramid is a book Freak has made—it is a dictionary of all his favorite words, with definitions that evidence his distinctive brand of quirky humor. Getting that dictionary from Freak is Max’s favorite part of Christmas. That night, Max is dreaming about “a little snowman who looks like Freak” when he is awakened by the sound of someone breathing. A giant hand covers his face, and the voice of Killer 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 mind has been “poisoned against” him. Killer Kane swears that he “never killed anybody” and announces that they are leaving on an “adventure.” He forces Max out into the snow without even giving him time to get a jacket. Everything seems “just make­believe” to Max, and he does not resist. When they are standing under a streetlight a few blocks away, Killer Kane studies his son and is amazed at how much Max resembles him. As they make their way down the quiet streets, Max is overcome by a sense of dreadful amazement at the raw power of his father. He senses despairingly that “no one can ever beat him, not even the brave Lancelot.”

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 door shut behind them and closes the shades. Loretta has been drinking. Killer Kane, whose real name is Kenny, reprimands Iggy about her condition. Iggy is clearly afraid of him. Kenny orders Iggy to get some food for “me and my boy.” While Iggy is busy frying burgers in the kitchen, Loretta passes out on the couch. After the meal, Iggy tells Kenny, “Any time you want, 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.

Chapters 17 and 18 Summary

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 the holidays. 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 dumb enough to run away.” He then ties Max’s feet and hands, looping the end of the rope around his 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 assert again that he “never killed anybody.” He then asks his son if Grim and Gram had given him the 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 about the injustices that have been done to him, and he swears on a Bible that he did not murder Max’s mother. After this conversation, Killer Kane goes back to sleep, but Max lies awake until the sun comes up, trying not to think about “things [he doesn’t] want to remember.” In the morning, Loretta Lee comes over with a box of pizza. Kenny is clearly edgy and tells her to put the box down and get Iggy. Loretta looks at Max, who is still trussed up, then leaves through the back of the apartment.

When Loretta is gone, Kenny tells Max that they “can’t eat anything touched by her dirty hands.” They search the cupboards and end up feasting on cornflakes and water. Killer Kane tells 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 masquerade as “The Reverend Kenneth David Kane.” According to his plan, he and Max will tour the country, telling people his story—that of “a bad man who has redeemed himself.” Cynically counting on the gullibility of the good­hearted populace, Kane figures they will collect a lot of 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 grabs Max by the neck and shoves him to the floor. The car eventually goes away, but Iggy comes into the room and announces that the police had come looking for Max. When Kenny demands suspiciously how they had known to come to Iggy’s place, Iggy nervously tells him that “it was that crippled midget kid...they had him out in the car.” Max then is forced to tell his father about how he and Freak found Loretta’s purse, and Iggy reminds Kenny that Freak “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. After thinking, he tells Iggy to get him a firearm and a vehicle for transportation. Iggy sneaks a look at Max “like he’s trying to tell [him] something” then leaves hurriedly, “walking backward out of the room.”

Chapters 19 and 20 Summary

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

Left alone, Max attempts to get loose from his bonds, but his hands are swollen from the tightness of the ropes, and he is unsuccessful. After awhile, he hears someone on the steps and is much relieved when Loretta Lee appears with a flashlight. Loretta removes the gag from Max’s mouth, then she begins to work on the ropes around his hands and feet. The knots are tight, however, and her hands are shaking; Loretta finally is able to free Max by cutting his restraints on the ragged edge of the boiler. Just when she manages to get Max’s feet loose, Killer Kane bursts out of the darkness and starts “squeezing [Loretta’s] neck...[with his] two big hands.” Even though Max knows “no one 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 neck juxtapose 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, not ever!

When Max’s words begin to register in Killer Kane’s head, he releases Loretta and puts his hands around Max’s neck instead. He tells his son that he couldn’t possibly remember those things because he had been only four years old, but Max insists, “I can’t ever forget it, no matter how much I try.”

To prove that he recalls everything, Max tells Killer Kane exactly what he had been wearing when he killed Max’s mother. Max describes how he had tried to stop him but could not and how 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 about to 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 blaster models,” right into his face. Freak boldly announces that the gun is loaded with sulfuric acid and sprays Kane right in the eyes. When Killer Kane starts screaming and “scrubbing at his eyes,” Max grabs Freak and runs for the stairs as fast as he can. The moldering stairs are breaking under his feet, and Killer Kane is “howling in rage” right behind him, but Max manages 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 had been 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, Max finally gets the cops to understand that Loretta Lee is still down in the cellar; they bring her out and she is “still breathing.” Everyone is there, making “a big, sloppy fuss,” and as the Fair Gwen carries Freak away, he hollers, “Freak the Mighty strikes again!”

Chapters 21 and 22 Summary

Things are quite chaotic in the aftermath of Max’s kidnapping and the capture of Killer Kane. Max has to spend a great deal of time at the police station, telling his story over and over. 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 Kane broke 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 sneaking out to rescue Max. She feels especially anxious about the whole thing and warns her son repeatedly:

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

Freak has trouble catching his breath more frequently now and has to go into “the medical research 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 work goes 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 and would “just as soon forget about the whole thing.” Fortunately, Killer Kane strikes a bargain with the court, so Max does not have to testify against him. Kane pleads guilty and will serve the rest of his original sentence plus ten more years; he will be an old man when he is finally released. The incident with Killer Kane torments Max in another way as well: Max is worried that he might turn out to be like his father and is terrified at the thought of growing up.

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 his memories of the Ice Age, “when glaciers covered the earth.” Max points out that Freak couldn’t possibly recall what it was like then because he was not even born, but Freak, in a testimony to the power of imagination, sagely responds:

If you want to, you can remember anything, whether it happened or not...you don’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 is really two birthdays because Freak the Mighty is almost a year old. Because Freak is not supposed to get overexcited, the Fair Gwen puts on just a small party for him, inviting only Grim, Gram, and Max. Freak receives a computer with a modem for his birthday, which will allow 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 “just in case.” Freak barely touches his birthday supper, and when the cake comes out, he asks Max to blow out the candles for him while he makes the wish. Max is a little perplexed when he notices that Freak does not eat his cake either. When the festivities are over, Max goes into the kitchen to help Gram and the Fair Gwen clean up while Freak shows Grim how to play 3­D chess on the new computer. Suddenly, Grim shouts Freak’s name, and everyone comes running. Freak is having a seizure. They call an ambulance; Max anxiously runs back and forth out to the street to flag down the ambulance when it comes, but the Fair Gwen calms him, telling him there is nothing they can do now but wait.

Chapters 23-25 Summary

Although he cannot visit Freak the next day, Max goes to the hospital anyway. He runs into the Fair Gwen, who greets him tearfully. Gwen tells Max that Freak wants to see him despite the fact that he is not allowed visitors. Because Freak is so insistent, Dr. Spivak has given permission 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 regular hospital instead of the Medical Research Building in the back. Freak looks very small on the bed, and he has a hole in his throat that allows him to breathe. Although his voice is faint and “whistly,” he seems to be as sassy as ever—but when Max asks when he will be coming home, 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 pages are blank. Freak tells Max that he wants him to “fill it up with [their] adventures.” When Max protests that he cannot write, Freak says that he would do it himself but he “won’t have the time.” He tells Max just to “write it all down like [he’s] talking...the story of Freak the Mighty.”

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 he gets 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 anybody who dares touch” him. He runs until he gets to the Medical Research Building and breaks through 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 would get 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 to have a very long life.” She conjectures that, despite his courageous acceptance of his fate, he had 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 for Freak’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 to reach Max, but to no avail. Finally, in September, Grim issues an ultimatum: Max will be going 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, despising their pity and rebuffing their efforts to be kind. One day in winter, Max runs into Loretta Lee. Loretta is still wearing a brace on her neck. She tells him that Gwen is living in California and asks what he is doing these days. When Max listlessly replies, “Nothing,” she regards 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 had given him. Although he is still convinced that he hasn’t “got a brain,” Max begins writing the story of “Freak the Mighty.” He keeps writing “for months and months,” and by the time he is finished, it is spring once more. The world is “really and truly green all over,” and Max finds that he is finally “feeling okay about remembering.”