Holes

Stanley wonders what he could’ve done differently with X-Ray because “for once in his unlucky life, he was in the right place at the right time, and it still didn’t help him” (64). X-Ray acts tersely toward him. When Mr. Pendanski comes to refill their canteens, X-Ray pretends that he found the gold tube in the dirt in his hole. Mr. Pendanski goes to get the Warden. The Warden comes to where the boys are digging and agrees to reward X-Ray. She tells Mr. Pendanski to fill up the boys’ canteens, and when he tells her he already did, she harshly reprimands him for not thinking about whether the boys already drank some water since he filled them last.

The Warden, Mr. Sir, and Mr. Pendanski stay with their group all day. The Warden has two boys digging holes around X-Ray’s hole so that one boy can dig and the other can carry the dirt far away. The Warden keeps “walking around, looking over the boys’ shoulders, and sticking her pitchfork through the dirt piles” (70). Later, Stanley finds out that the boys think that the Warden has cameras and microphones everywhere and that this is how she knows their names. He realizes why X-Ray didn’t talk to him in the morning: he didn’t want the Warden to hear their conversation. Stanley also realizes that “they weren’t just digging to ‘build character.’ They were definitely looking for something” (71).

The next day, the Warden pushes the boys to dig more and faster. They don’t find anything because they’re digging near where X-Ray claimed he found the tube and far from the hole where Stanley found it. Stanley gets a letter from his mother telling him that they might be evicted because of the shoe smell from his father’s experiments. Stanley laughs when he reads that his mother feels sorry for the lady who lived in a shoe, which is when he realizes that Zero is with him while he is reading. Stanley explains to Zero what he thought was funny, but Zero doesn’t know the story about the lady in the shoe. Zero keeps staring blankly at him and Stanley leaves because “he would have felt pretty silly reciting nursery rhymes at Camp Green Lake” (76).

As the boys continue to dig, the Warden loses patience. She jabs Armpit in the chest with her pitchfork after he comes back from the bathroom. Zigzag’s shovel hits Stanley on the side of the head and Stanley passes out for a moment. Mr. Sir bandages Stanley’s head with cloth from a sunflower seed bag, but Stanley must keep digging. Zigzag keeps telling Stanley that he has to dig his part in the hole.

Stanley and the other boys go back to digging their regular holes, which makes Stanley glad. His head still hurts from being hit by a shovel the day before. When he finishes digging, Stanley heads back to camp and starts to write a letter to his mother. Zero comes in, but Stanley doesn’t care because “Zero was nobody” (81). Zero asks Stanley to teach him how to read and write. Stanley says he doesn’t have time to teach. Zero reiterates that he at least wants to learn how to read since he doesn’t have anyone to write to.

In the middle of the night, Stanley wakes up to the sound of Squid crying. Squid denies it the next day and says that he just has allergies. Stanley doesn’t say anything because “he might say the wrong thing” (84). After a while of digging and their first water refill of the day, Magnet reveals that he stole Mr. Sir’s bag of sunflower seeds from his truck. The boys toss the bag around, but the bag spills when tossed to Stanley. As Stanley is trying to figure out what to do, Mr. Sir’s truck returns. Again, Stanley “was in the wrong place at the wrong time” (85). He tries to cover the seeds and bag with dirt, but Mr. Sir sees the edge of the bag and takes Stanley to see the Warden.