Chapters 48-49 Summary
Stanley walks back to camp in a daze. He cannot really understand anything that is going on. He learns the lawyer’s name, Ms. Morengo, and he thinks she seems tall even though she is shorter than he is. Mr. Pedanski gives him some juice and a bagel. Stanley drinks but cannot eat.
The Warden invents yet another story, saying the suitcase belongs to Stanley but its contents were stolen from her cabin. She demands that Stanley open the suitcase. Ms. Morengo says not to. As the two women argue, Stanley does nothing at all. Eventually the Attorney General says Stanley and Ms. Morengo can go, but Stanley says he cannot leave Zero; he calls him by his real name, Hector, for the adults’ benefit. “They’ll kill him,” Stanley says.
The adults try to convince Stanley that Zero is safe, but Stanley does not give in. The Attorney General orders the Warden to show Ms. Morengo Hector Zeroni’s file. The Warden sends Mr. Pedanski to get it, but of course he cannot find it because it has been destroyed. Nobody admits this, however; they just say the file is lost.
While the adults argue over this, the boys from D tent come to see Stanley. Only X-Ray hangs back. Zigzag apologizes, and Armpit tells Stanley to be careful out in the real world. Stanley promises to call Squid’s mother to convey his apologies.
The Attorney General makes a few phone calls, but he cannot find any information on Zero. When Ms. Morengo realizes nobody can say why Zero is in prison or how long he has been sentenced to stay, she demands that he be released. Nobody has the power to stop her from taking him, so both boys get to leave Camp Green Lake.
The story skips briefly back to Sam, the onion man, in old Green Lake. Sam talks with two men who are going out into the desert to hunt rattlesnakes. The men say they are not afraid of snakes, but they are scared of yellow-spotted lizards. Sam sells them bottles of onion juice and advises them to drink the juice the night before they leave and while they are out. He explains that lizards will not bite anyone who smells like onions.
As Ms. Morengo drives Stanley and Zero away from Camp Green Lake, she explains that she is a patent lawyer hired by Stanley’s father. Stanley’s father has invented a substance that eliminates foot odor. She lets Stanley and Zero smell it and says she wishes she had more because the boys smell terrible.
Ms. Morengo tells Stanley that his father mentioned Stanley’s imprisonment while she was working on a patent application. She did some checking, and she found out that Stanley was being bullied by Derrick Dune at the time Clyde Livingston’s shoes were stolen. With that information, she proved that Stanley could not have taken the shoes and got the judge to order his release. Zero tells her that he is the one who took the shoes, and Ms. Morengo tells him never to say so again.
Meanwhile, back at Camp Green Lake, it begins to rain for the first time in more than a hundred years.
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