Status Updates From The Madman of Piney Woods (...

Red and his dad talk of Grandma’s moving out and how her hatred is her problem, not theirs. The memorial service for Cooter is very private but beautiful and in the spot where he buried the big deer he stole back. Benji’s mom snuck his discarded article to Miss Cary and surprises him with the article showing up in the newspaper. I always want more from these stories. They can’t end!

Benji races back to Buxton and Red faces his fear of the dark to cradle Madman’s head. Help comes and they learn the Madman is Cooter! Elijah is their mayor! Cooter stays with Benji and it finally clicked that his mom, TooToo, is Hope from the last book! Cooter was a war hero who couldn’t reintegrate into society so he stayed in the woods upon a delayed return. Very sad but elders respect him.

Benji invites Red over for dinner and it’s awkward until Red breaks the ice w/ a joke. Benji visits Red’s for dinner and they escape thinking his grandma’s come home when she hasn’t. Benji tells Madman about the buck head and he goes and steals it. Curly’s dad says he shot Madman and Curly vows to finally kill his dad. Red only feels for Madman.

The Madman tells how he fought in the Civil War and was almost killed and scalped by a Native. His scalp never reconnected and everyone ran in fright. Benji’s mom knows him. Benji and Red finally meet at the church for Spence’s speech contest and they have fun in the forest making newspaper headlines and swimming. Super funny how they try to show off and seeing their perspectives on one another.

Benji is tasked with writing an article about a snake oil salesman and his first attempt is horrible in many obvious ways of trying to overly describe things and using a thesaurus alphabetically to hit the word count, as well as just spewing opinions instead of letting readers decide for themselves. She did frame it though to mark his progress for future projects. He feels betrayed but later takes it well.

Benji’s welcomed by a big farewell picnic in honor of his new job at the train station. Red’s grandma tells him of her hard life coming to Canada and fleeing the potato famine. It sounds so horrible and tragic, especially siblings dying and staying aboard the “coffin ship” in quarantine for the Irish bringing typhus into Canada.