- Tom's outside counting the number of times the cicadas buzz every fifteen seconds.
- Apparently, he knows a formula: Add 39 to the number and you get the temperature outside at that very moment.
- Doug goes into the house and reads the thermometer, then comes back outside and tells Tom it's eighty-seven degrees. (Quick, go thank your parents for the air conditioning. We'll wait here.)
- Tom gets ninety-two, which he says is the temperature in Degrees Spaulding. Doug, being Doug, doesn't get the message to go away and stop being a buzz kill.
- They stare up at the cloudless sky and think about just how hot it actually is, then start counting again.
- This is another chapter that ends with ellipses. And, we'd like to add, a fair degree of dread, foreboding, and general existential malaise.