How It All Goes Down
On the Road
- The morning Tom is set to go off with the Spook, Tom's dad gives him his prized possession: a tinderbox. It's not a credit card, but it has sentimental value.
- Tom meets the Spook at the fence, and off they go.
- It only takes about a page before they run into some sort of trouble: hundreds of ghosts hanging from the tree on Hangman's Hill. Um, it's called Hangman's Hill. What did Tom expect, a rainbow and pot of gold?
- To help Tom get over his fear, the Spook tells him to "concentrate on [the dead soldier] rather than yourself. How must he have felt?" (2.19) We've heard of "Sympathy for the Devil", but sympathy for a ghost? Now that's a new one.
- Tom stops feeling scared. Instead, he starts feeling sad for the poor soldier who had to die this way and never saw his family again.
- They continue on their journey. The Spook gives Tom more gems of wisdom, like the fact that he'll be dealing with a lot of ghosts, he should always have good boots, he should het used to being hungry, and he should "never trust a man who's dizzy" (2.43).
- Good advice, but can you trust a dizzy woman?