Freak the Mighty

Max jogs them home. When they get there, Freak says it was quite an adventure, but Max says they were lucky to survive. Freak insists Iggy was all talk; Max knows Freak is trying to be brave. Freak admits that Loretta’s comment about his father was true. Then he says, “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” and Max bursts out laughing and rolls on the ground in mirth while Freak struts around, making fun of Loretta and Iggy, and saying things like “Sir Iggy, wouldst thou do us all a big favor and fall upon thy sword?” (73)

One week before school starts, Gram takes Max shopping for clothes. Max hates doing this because trying on oversized clothing embarrasses him. Freak, meanwhile, gets his mom to talk the school administrators into putting Max in the smart classes with him because it would be good “having someone to help him get around” (75). Gram worries that Max will fall further behind, but Grim argues that Kevin is good for Max; she initials the re-assignment papers.

By the end of the first day, all the kids have noticed Max and Freak together; some call them “disgusting” or a “freak show.” In English class, the teacher, Mrs. Donelli, asks Max to stand and say a few words about his summer; Max hesitates, and the kids start saying that “his brain is in his tail!” and “Ask him to count, he can paw the ground!” (76) Soon they’re throwing things at Max and Freak.

Freak jumps up on his desk. Fists clenched, face fierce, he shouts for silence. The kids quiet down. Mrs. Donelli asks if he’s Kevin, and he says, “Sometimes,” then climbs onto Max’s shoulders and, pulling on his hair and clicking his chest with his feet, walks him around the room, talking about their adventures and calling them Freak the Mighty, over and over until the entire classroom chants along with him.

Freak and Max get sent to the principal’s office. The Principal, Mrs. Addison, is prim and formal, but Freak talks to her using his big words until he wins her over and the boys get out of trouble. 

Freak always knows the answers in class; Max, who’s learning from Freak how to read better, usually knows the answers, too, though he’s shy about showing it. Max’s reading tutor, Mr. Meehan, notices the uptick in Max’s ability and tells him he suspected all along that Max was simply lazy.

Mr. Meehan informs Mrs. Donelli about Max’s shyness, and she stops trying to get Max to answer in class but instead quizzes him during study hall. She wonders, though, why Max has trouble with writing. By now Freak has shown Max that reading is a way of listening, but writing is like talking, which Max hates to do.

On Friday, October 13, Max is summoned to the principal’s office, where he learns that his father may be returning soon from prison. Max hunches down in a corner, hands over his ears. The principal and a nurse work to calm him.

At lunch that day, Freak really enjoys his dish of American chop suey and asks for more. Max goes to get some; when he returns, Freak’s face is red and he’s having trouble breathing. Max runs for the nurse, who rushes to Freak and uses a plastic device that reopens his breathing passage. The school calls for an ambulance; Freak gets better but they take him to the hospital anyway.

Max wants to come along, but the medics won’t let him. Mrs. Addison pulls him away and says, “You’re going to be okay” (87). Max isn’t worried about himself, though; he frets about his friend. 

Max stays home the next day and greets Freak when Gwen brings him from the hospital. Freak is his usual feisty self. Max brings him inside, where they talk about Freak’s plan to get a robot body. Freak reminds Max that Gwen mustn’t know about it because the idea scares her. Max admits that it scares him, too. Freak isn’t afraid: He looks forward to it. Max asks why he can’t just stay the way he is. Freak replies, “I’m growing on the inside but not on the outside” (89).

During Christmas break, Max is in his basement, wrapping gifts, when he hears a commotion upstairs. Gram is yelling; Max lifts the basement bulkhead, peeks out, and overhears her arguing with Grim about how to protect themselves and Max if the parole board releases Max’s father, Kenny Kane. He may already have convinced the board that he’s reformed. Gram and Grim don’t believe it for a moment. Grim wants to get a gun, but Gram angrily forbids it.

Grim visits Max’s room and tells him about the hearing and how he’s arranged for a court order that keeps Kenny away from their house. Max wonders if Grim should get a gun, but Grim says he’d have to hide it from Gram, and he hates to lie to her. Max says he won’t tell her.

Things are happening fast with the parole, so Grim makes Max agree to stay in the house for the next few days. Max promises, saying, “Cross my heart and hope to die” (92). 

Gwen and Freak, both dressed formally, visit Grim and Gram’s house for Christmas Eve dinner. Max and the others are a bit tense and quiet about Killer Kane coming back. Freak quips, “You could hear a mouse fart” (93). After the meal they sit near the Christmas tree, and Grim tells exaggerated stories about his impoverished youth, like how his father was so poor he couldn’t even give his kids lumps of coal but instead wrote the word “coal” on pieces of paper and put those in their stockings.

They allow themselves to open up just one present on Christmas Eve. Grim receives from Gram a sweater—it’s a lot like all the other sweaters he has—and Max gives Gram a bracelet made of sea shells. He gives Freak a multiplex tool that includes wrenches and a magnifying glass; Freak loves it.

Gram’s present for Gwen is a dark-red scarf that matches her blouse. Max selects a gift from Freak: It’s wrapped in Sunday comics and shaped like a pyramid. Under the wrapping are arrows pointing to a spot on the box; Max presses it and the sides fold down, pulled by rubber bands and paper clips, to reveal a platform on which lies a book that Freak made. It’s a dictionary of his favorite words with his own funny definitions. Max opens it up to the first page:

AARDVARK, a silly-looking creature that eats ants

AARGH, what the aardvark says when it eats ants

ABACUS, a finger-powered computer

ABSCISSA, the horizontal truth (97-98)

Max knows this dictionary will be the best gift he gets this year.

Late that night, lying in bed, Max wakes to a cold draft of air. Suddenly someone looms over the bed and presses a hand against Max’s mouth. It’s his dad, Killer Kane. The cold air is his breath. “‘I came back,’ he says. ‘Like I promised.’” (99)