- The news reporter was able to get all the dirt on Mother Paula's E.I.S.
- Apparently it was completed...and then lost...and then found again. But found in Councilman Grandy's golf bag with $4,500. Oooh, that doesn't look good.
- Mother Paula's got loads of bad press and Chuck Muckle went from bad to worse, eventually resigning.
- Roy and the gang made national news. The entire country wanted to know all about these school kids and burrowing owls.
- One night Mrs. Eberhardt shows Roy a TV report that the Mother Paula's company will be donating money to the Nature Conservancy.
- Roy comments how this is just to cover their butts. And his father agrees.
- But both his parents tell him that what really matters is that he made a difference in getting the word out. Heck yeah!
- Roy gives credit to Mullet Fingers, who left home again a couple days after the groundbreaking.
- Naturally, Beatrice had helped her brother escape.
- However, the noise they made alarmed a neighbor who called the cops. Irritated at Mullet Fingers, his mother tells the police he was stealing from her and he ends up in juvie.
- But escaping is what Mullet Fingers does best. So it's not long until he busted out of the detention center too.
- This time, with Dana Matherson as his partner in crime. However, Mullet Fingers knew everything about Dana and what he did to Roy.
- Being a loyal friend, Mullet Fingers specially picks Dana to help in his escape; mostly to be a distraction for the guards.
- After the Mullet Fingers' escape from juvie, no one could find him. Not even Roy.
- Although Beatrice knew but obviously promised to keep it a secret.
- Mr. Eberhardt suggests that he and Roy take a ride.
- They end up at the old Mother Paula's construction site and bump into Curly and Delinko. Looks like everyone had the same idea and they stood in silence waiting for the owls to come out of their burrows.
- Roy and Beatrice form a splendid friendship and he spends one afternoon enjoying the Florida sunshine while watching one of Beatrice's soccer games.
- Though he still misses Montana, he's enjoying Florida more and more.
- This particular day reminds him of another great day in Florida he once had.
- Roy heads off to the secret creek that Mullet Fingers showed him
- He hangs his shoes on a tree and swims out to the shipwrecked stone-crab boat.
- Patiently, he waits.
- Closely watching the water, Roy sees the fish start to come. Roy thrusts his hands in the water and can almost feel the slippery mullets in his hands. But his hands come out of the water empty.
- Roy hears a noise that sounds almost like a laugh. He initially thinks it's a bird but doesn't see one around.
- He calls out for Mullet Fingers but gets no response.
- Roy heads back to shore and finds a present in one of his sneakers (which had mysteriously become half-submerged in the creek).
- Inside is a small baby mullet; a present from the strange boy.
- Roy decides that he's just going to have to keep coming back and practicing catching them himself. Just like "a real Florida boy would do" (Epilogue.79).