The True Meaning of Smekday Part 2 Summary

The True Meaning of Smekday, PART 2: -or- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Boov

• About two years ago, Gratuity tells us, her mom was abducted.
• One morning, Gratuity's mom burst into her room with news about her alien abduction. She has a new mole on her neck, which Gratuity thought was weird; her mom tells her the aliens put it there.
• Her mom relays the story: Two aliens came into her room at night and said she needed to come with them, then they shot something in her arm that made her sleepy.
• They took her somewhere and asked her to fold laundry, and then she felt a hot pain on the back of her neck (when they put the mole on). She woke up this morning.
• Her mom wonders why Gratuity (whom she calls Turtlebear) doesn't believe her.
• It's not that Gratuity wants to be difficult or anything—she just has a hard time believing that aliens would abduct her mom just to get her to fold some clothes and put a mole on her neck. What would be the point?
• Gratuity just tells her mom she believes her, though.
• As her mom starts telling people about the alien abduction, more and more people fall away. No one wants to be friends with a psycho.
• A little while later, Gratuity flips out on her mom. She wants to be supportive and all, but enough is enough: There are no aliens or laundry-folding facilities where they take humans, and she snaps at her mom for thinking there even could be.
• Then she notices that her mom's mole has grown and is almost glowing. Gratuity decides her mom has to get this checked, because it could be cancerous.
• When she suggests it, though, her mom gets annoyed. She's the grown-up here, so why does Gratuity always treat her like the kid?
• Her mom storms off into Gratuity's room before realizing her mistake; huffing, she goes to her own room.
• Meanwhile, Gratuity looks up her mom's symptoms on the Internet. She can't find anything about moles glowing, per se, but she does confirm that her mom's mole needs to be looked at by a doctor, like, yesterday.
• That night, she hears her mom mumbling a bunch of English and Italian words together that don't make sense: "Tractor, Arancia, Vision, Lasagna."
• Huh?
• The next day, Gratuity makes an appointment for her mom at the dermatologist. It's not for a week, but at least she feels better about it.
• Gratuity and her mom do lots of holiday stuff since Christmas is right around the corner—they sing carols, go shopping for presents, put up decorations, all that festive jazz.
• On Christmas Eve, Gratuity hears something coming from the living room.
• Her mom is talking in gibberish again. She says, "cannoli, earphones, eggbeater, zebra."Gratuity's not sure what any of it means, but when she shouts mom at her, her mom seems like she's in a trance.
• She shakes her mom, who wakes up and moves to the back door. Gratuity notices her mole is a purple color now. Um, ew.
• Her mom starts walking toward Oak Hill Cemetery, but still isn't really with it.
• Finally, Gratuity sees what she's walking toward: a big spaceship with yellow, green, and purple lights.
• She yells at her mom to wake up, but nothing happens… and then her mom gets sucked into the spaceship through a vacuum cleaner hose.
• Gratuity tries to hold on to her, but she lets go. She sticks around the cemetery for a while, just to see if her mom will come back… but she doesn't.
• When Gratuity gets home, she doesn't really do anything for days; she leaves her Christmas presents where they are. Why bother? Her mom was just sucked up by a spaceship.
• There are a bunch of stories about the spaceships on television, but Gratuity still doesn't feel right about them.
• It turns out Pennsylvania isn't the only place that got visitors without passports. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, London, Moscow, and some other places did, too.
• At first, no one knew what the aliens were doing there. And then they began blowing stuff up.
• Gratuity tells us that she feels all kinds of weird emotions—fear, anxiety, sadness, and pride. She's not proud of the aliens, of course; she's proud to have survived something so horrific.
• Gratuity remembers that everyone fought back; a bunch of armies joined together and tried to overcome the Boov, but it was no use.
• The Boov had these secret bees that were impossible to track and too small to shoot at. What as so special about them? Well, they blew up, for one.
• Eventually, humans gave up. The way Gratuity remembers it is a broadcast declared the Boov rediscovered the planet, so it was rightly theirs to begin with. Okay…
• From then on, Boov started flocking to earth like ants to a picnic. They brought ship after ship full to earth—or Smekland, as it is now called.
• Gratuity remembers how many people were uprooted then. Her neighbor, Ms. Wiley, was kicked out of her home.
• People were told to beat it, or else.
• Plus, cats loved the Boov, which felt like a big betrayal.
• Finally, Captain Smek goes on television to let everyone know what's what. He informs everyone that Boov and humans can't seem to live peacefully together.
• At first, Gratuity thinks this means the evil Boov will leave, but then Captain Smek announces that he will graciously allow the humans to move to certain places to live.
• For Americans, he chooses Florida. That's right: All Americans must cram into one state.
• Which brings us to Moving Day, where we started.
• Back in the present, inside Gratuity's car—now named Slushious after the convenience store sign it bears—with the Boov named J.Lo, Gratuity tries to figure out the new car.
• It's still her car, of course, but J.Lo has modified it a bunch: The brake opens the trunk; the gas is the brake; and the radio controls the steering. Sure, that makes sense.
• When Gratuity realizes they need more gas, J.Lo is on the job and he teleports some right to them. Well that's convenient.
• Gratuity is impressed, though she doesn't want to admit a Boov could actually do something right.
• J.Lo explains that actually he teleported and then cloned some gas. Okay, okay, now Gratuity admits she's impressed.
• Yet, J.Lo gets all offended when Gratuity thinks he teleported himself. Nope, Boov and humans can't clone or teleport. They are too complex, but gas is simple, so it can be cloned and teleported anytime. Looks like someone hit a nerve.
• Gratuity doesn't let J.Lo drive, partly because it's her car, and partly because she likes to be in control. She's not sure if she can trust this Boov yet.
• When she says something about Boov blowing up the roads, J.Lo admits he doesn't know why they exploded them, though he says explored by mistake instead.
• English, it seems, isn't J.Lo's strong suit.
• Suddenly Gratuity thinks it's awfully weird that J.Lo was out there by himself. What was he up to?
• J.Lo explains that he was at the antenna farm, fixing the radio towers. He took too long, though, and his ride bailed.
• Hmm… Gratuity's not entirely sure that's the whole story, but she goes with it.
• They try to play a car game, but that doesn't work out too well since J.Lo doesn't get the game or English.
• He's seen some American television shows, like I Love Lucy; apparently, before he came to Smekland, he thought it would be more exciting and fun. Earth… er, Smekland… is kind of a let down.
• He had a tutor to teach him about English and earth, too.
• Gratuity thinks this is weird. Why do they care about earth so much? Who thinks life is like it is on television? Come on.
• They rest at—where else?—a rest stop to fill up on snacks. Luckily, J.Lo has a handy toolbox with everything you'd ever need in it.
• This is no ordinary toolbox. He's even got some kind of blue, coffee-smelling spray that he uses on the vending machine to dissolve the Plexiglas.
• As they wait for the foam to work, Gratuity runs off to the bathroom and says J.Lo should do the same. He is a boy, right?
• J.Lo thinks this is a weird question—of course he's a boy. Though when he explains gender options for Boov—boy, girl, boygirl, girlboy, boyboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy—we're not sure why this is such a no duh kind of question.
• When they get back from the bathroom, they stock up on snacks from the now glassless vending machine.
• Gratuity goes for the food, but J.Lo decides to stick with the dental floss and bathroom soaps. Um, okay.
• Then Gratuity smells something fishy. It's J.Lo. No wonder the cats love Boov—they smell like fish to them. With that mystery solved, they decide they've got to find somewhere to stop.
• J.Lo calls Gratuity "Turtlebear" and Gratuity stops cold in her tracks. What did you just call me?
• Now J.Lo's confused because he thought that was a nice thing to say to someone, but Gratuity flips out, so he knows he messed up somehow.
• Gratuity asks J.Lo where he heard that word—no one else says it but her mom. And it turns out her mom is where J.Lo heard it.
• Remember when Gratuity's mom was taken up by the vacuum cleaner in the spaceship? Well, the Boov wanted her to be their tutor, to teach them English and Italian.
• Finally all the words her mom was muttering make some sense to Gratuity. She's ticked off, though, that J.Lo had her mom and she didn't even know it.
• Still annoyed, Gratuity decides to pull over at a motel. At least that way they can shower and get rid of the awful fish smell in the car.
• J.Lo picks the lock and lets them inside one of the rooms. On the way in, they see big bubbles in the sky. Like, minivan big.
• The pair gets to Florida and sees a sign saying something about beaches and oranges. J.Lo can't read it, so Gratuity tells him about it.
• "Pull over!" they hear, along with a funny sounding siren; it's a Boov cop, pulling up behind them.
• J.Lo suddenly jumps in the back and hides, which confuses Gratuity. Wasn't this one of his peeps? Why should he hide?
• The Boov cop strolls up to the window just as Gratuity says "Stupid Boov." Oops—big mistake.
• The cop calls her on it, but luckily Gratuity is quick on her feet and claims she said "stoopeedabouf," a.k.a. French for "nice scooter." Phew, the cop buys it.
• He asks her what she's doing here, and Gratuity explains that she drove instead of taking one of the pods.
• This is confusing to the cop since the roads are blown up and all, but then he realizes the car is floating instead of rolling… and knows a Boov must be involved.
• Gratuity's not sure why, but she figures out that J.Lo doesn't exactly want to be seen, so she covers for her new friend.
• She claims some Boov helped her fix her car up back in Pennsylvania a couple days ago, then he split, saying he was headed north.
• This news seems to brighten up the Boov cop, who's clearly digging for information on J.Lo.
• The cop tells her to keep driving until the she sees a Boov and check in.
• But just then, something moves in the back.
• The cop wants to know what's back there, so Gratuity blames her cat.
• Again, the cop buys her fib, so she gets to drive on.
• After they leave the Boov cop, Gratuity tells J.Lo he better start talking. Now. What's the deal with him hiding from the Boov?
• J.Lo spills the beans. What he told Gratuity is true, it's just not the whole story. He was supposed to fix the antenna, but he didn't do his job right, so now he's on the run from the Boov just as much—if not more—than Gratuity is.
• It's clear that Gratuity's annoyed that the Boov lied, but what's she going to do about it now?
• Then she sees a sign spray-painted on a restaurant. It reads, "UMANS-HAY— O-GAY OO-TAY THE INGDOM-KAY— EET-MAY UNDER-WAY THE ASTLE-CAY —BOOB."
• She's not exactly sure Pig Latin is the most top secret code in the world, but then J.Lo doesn't get what it means, so we guess it works.
• J.Lo explains that the Boov were never taught how to read English; they know some words, but that's it.
• How do they communicate? Boov words are made up of bubbles of course. So that must be why they were in the sky before. It suddenly makes sense… sort of.
• They head over to Happy Mouse Kingdom, which makes J.Lo nervous—he's worried that Gratuity is going to ditch him, and he starts freaking out.
• Even though she promises not to, we're not so sure that's a promise Gratuity will keep.
• They're only a few miles from Happy Mouse Kingdom when Gratuity remembers going there as a kid with her mom.
• Her mom kept telling her how perfect and clean the whole place was, even though thousands of people were there every day.
• Gratuity didn't buy it. Nowhere can be that perfect every single day.
• To prove her point, she scratched the word FART on the ticket booth while her mom was buying their ticket.
• That way, when they came back the next day, she could show her mom that nowhere is perfect, not even Happy Mouse Kingdom.
• Everything was going according to plan. Except the next day, when she took her mom over to the scene of the crime, it wasn't there. Huh?
• Gratuity's confused and frustrated that her mom was right. It looks like this place is perfect.
• Back in the present, Gratuity makes her way down to the castle alone. She figures if her mom is in Florida, she's probably at Happy Mouse Kingdom since she loved it so much.
• She told J.Lo she'd meet up with him later, so she could meet up with whoever wrote the secret message alone.
• The message said, "HUMANS GO TO THE KINGDOM MEET UNDER THE CASTLE —BOOB," but it didn't say anything about Boov.
• As she makes her way down there, Gratuity wonders what's in store. She can't stop to muse on this, though, since she sees a lion. A real lion.
• It used to be in the animal park, she guesses, but now is coming toward her, hungry.
• She's not sure what to do, so she climbs a tree and drops the lion some of her vending machine snacks. It's not exactly a feast, but it's all she's got.
• Phew—the lion chows down while she climbs into the Haunted House.
• It's super dark, so dark that she can't see where she's going. This is the castle from the message, right?
• She keeps going down ladders and making twists and turns that she can't see.
• Finally, she can see that she's standing in a huge room with an upside-down Haunted House. Whoa, this place is confusing…
• She comes to a door that says "Snow Queen's Castle" and figures that's the castle from the sign.
• When she opens the door, someone shines a flashlight in her face.
• "Who's there?" someone asks her. When she tells them who she is and what she's doing there, they don't believe her. She doesn't look right—she must be a Boov spy.
• Finally they let her in, though, and introduce themselves as Tanner, Juan, Alberto, Marcos, Jeff, Yosuan, Christian, Cole, and some guy with curly hair who doesn't give a name (but we'll just call Curly). Otherwise known as "Brotherhood Organized against Oppressive Boov" or BOOB.
• Wait a minute, Gratuity chimes in… Shouldn't it be BOAOB?
• Nope, they like BOOB better, one of them says. Cue the giggling.
• They tell her that everyone else has gone to Arizona. When the Boov found out they had oranges in Florida, they wanted it for themselves, so they sent all the humans off to the Grand Canyon state.
• For the record, the Boov don't want to eat the oranges, but that doesn't mean they don't like decorating with them.
• The boys have stayed behind so they can fight against the Boov—they're not going to let some aliens tell them what to do—but instead they've been living inside Happy Mouse Kingdom for weeks.
• Christian tells her that his mom and Alberto's dad worked there, so they know their way around. They have two of every building: one out in the park, and the other underground so they can repaint it and fix any scuffs or trash that visitors make. Then, at night, they flip them. That way people only ever see a perfectly clean version.
• No wonder Gratuity couldn't see the word fart scratched into the building when she visited.
• Christian tells Gratuity that their parents disappeared on Christmas Eve… just like Gratuity's mom.
• At first they think she's lying, but then she explains that they took her mom to be a tutor in English and Italian.
• That makes sense because Alberto's dad spoke English and Portuguese, and Christian's mom spoke English and Spanish.
• Wait a minute, Curly chimes in. How does she know all this? He thinks she's a Boov spy and accuses her of being one—again.
• They search her and find a bee. It's not an ordinary bee, but one of the Boov's crazy ones. Uh-oh.
• Things aren't looking good for Gratuity, especially when J.Lo shows up calling her name. It doesn't exactly help Gratuity's case for not being a Boov spy.
• Gratuity tries to explain that J.Lo is on the run from the Boov, too, but it's too late—the bee is a tracking device and the Boov are on their way to hunt the kids down.
• Everyone flies into a panic. Gratuity decides to split off from the group and go with J.Lo, which puzzles Curly. Why would she go with the Boov instead of them?
• Gratuity can't explain it. She's friends with J.Lo now, and she wants to help him out. Christian tells her the secret way to go to avoid the Boov, and makes her promise to tell their parents they're safe if she sees them in Arizona.
• When they make their way through the tunnels and out to their car, the Boov are already there.
• J.Lo and Gratuity try to make a run for it, but the Boov will catch them before they get inside the car.
• That's when Gratuity remembers the lion. She makes as much noise as she can to get it to come over to her.
• It works, and the lion distracts the Boov long enough for Gratuity and J.Lo to hop in the car, though their troubles aren't behind them yet.
• They speed away, but their car is much slower than the Boov spaceships.
• Luckily, J.Lo installed a button to push in case of this. Because of course he did.
• J.Lo pushes it and the car gets an extra boost of power, racing off and losing the Boov behind them.
• As they finally outrun the Boov, they see a gigantic purple sphere in the air, hovering.
• J.Lo doesn't look so good, and he tells Gratuity that's not a Boov ship. What is it then?
• It turns out it's a Gorg ship, and they want Smekland for themselves—and since they are much bigger and stronger than Boov, they'll probably win.
• Uh oh… And here Gratuity thought the Boov were the worst of her problems. But how are the Gorg even here, and why now?
• J.Lo fidgets a little before coming clean. When he fixed the radio antenna, he sang a song to make sure it was working.
• Only, instead of saying "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3…" he said, "Gorg are dumb, dumb like soap, their wives are wider than they should be."
• Yep, that probably brought them here; they might not have known about earth at all otherwise.
• J.Lo feels really badly, so instead of scolding him, Gratuity says they should have no more secrets now. Plus, they're going to have to work together to get earth back from the Gorg.
• Then Gratuity tells J.Lo to call her "Tip." It's what her friends call her.
• Gratuity closes out the essay by telling us that she chose to stand by her friend that day, and that's what Smekday means to her. Underneath it all, the Boov were just like people, too (if you don't count the funny helmets or eight legs or anything).
• Gratuity gets a letter from Bev Doogan, the Chairperson in charge of choosing an essay for the time capsule. And guess what? She won—her essay was chosen to go inside the time capsule that will be opened in one hundred years.
• She even gets two hundred bucks and a free taco as a prize. For the record, we at Shmoop never turn down free tacos.
• The chairperson encourages her to keep writing, saying people will be interested to hear how the story ends. (We know we are.)