Max the Mighty

Worm says the Undertaker can make her mother say anything. He beats her, the cops show up, and she says it’s her fault. Worm wants to locate her real father, who can help. Max’s hopes rise. She says he lives in Montana. Max’s hopes come crashing down. He wishes Keven were still alive: He’d think of Worm as “a damsel in distress” (34), work up an adventurous plan to rescue her, and all would turn out well. Instead, Max simply agrees to go with her to Montana.

As they hurry across town, Max stumbles against a trash can and knocks it over. Out spill its contents, which include some old clothes. Remembering the disguises Huck wears in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Worm grabs them and has Max wear them—an aged suit coat and tie and a “gangster hat” pulled way down. She dirties his face with dust so he appears to have whiskers.

Between them, they have $25 in cash. Hoping it’s enough for tickets, they head for the bus station. At the station, a police car pulls up and the officers go to the ticket window. Max knows they’ll wait there for him. He and Worm head across town to the main highway onramp, where he sticks out his thumb to catch a ride.

Cars and trucks roar past, ignoring them. Worm, eyes reddened by tears, tells Max it’s not fair of her to make him help her and says he should go home. Max is tempted, but he can’t just leave an 11-year-old girl on her own. Antsy and pale with worry, Worm fidgets until Max tells her to pull out a book and read. Relieved, she produces a copy of A Wrinkle in Time; in seconds, she’s completely absorbed in it.

Desperate, Max prays to God to give them a ride; in return, he promises “to be good and pray for more important things, like ending wars and feeding all the hungry people” (39). When he opens his eyes, he sees an old school bus slowing down. It’s painted in bright colors. He’s wary, but Worm quickly boards it, and he follows.

The bus’s seats have been replaced by couches, a kitchen, and bunk beds. It’s a house on wheels driven by a pot-bellied old man with long white hair, huge glasses, and a gaudy Hawaiian shirt. He welcomes them and introduces himself as the “Dippy Hippie,” or “Dip.” Worm says she’s Rachel and her friend is “Max the Mighty.” Dip says, “Groovy!” (41).

He invites his young guests to grab some food. Max makes sandwiches for himself and Worm. They eat and, exhausted, fall asleep. When Max wakes, it’s dark, the bus is parked, and Dip lies on a couch, ready for his own nap. Gently, he asks Max if he wants to explain his and Rachel’s situation. Max merely says they missed the interstate bus and tried hitchhiking.

Dip says he’s a teacher who retired so he and his wife could explore the world, but she died suddenly, so he travels alone. He explains that the bus gets its name, the Prairie Schooner, from pioneer wagons that had sails on them so the wind would take them across the prairie until the passengers found a new place to live. Dip thus travels “wherever the wind takes me” (44). Max thinks that’s a fine idea.

Dip finishes his nap and drives the bus through the night for hours. Max watches Worm sleep. Part of him wishes he’d never gotten involved with her problems, and part of him knows he couldn’t have walked away. Now he’s in trouble and nobody will believe him that he did the right thing. Dip again asks what’s on Max’s mind. Max says, “Just stuff.”

In the morning, they park in a rest area behind some pines, and Dip stretches his creaky bones, steps outside, and does tai chi, a slow, dance-like Chinese exercise. Worm does it too, as if she’s done this before. Dip puts a stove on a picnic table and prepares bacon and eggs on toast. It’s delicious; he says the secret is fresh air instead of ketchup.

Happily full, Max lies down on the grass—then jumps up, yelling, as fire ants attack him. Dip gets Worm back in the bus, then helps Max disrobe and remove the ants. Back inside the bus, Dip bursts out laughing, and soon Max and Worm are giggling too. Worm teases Max: “Help! Help! My butt’s on fire!” (51).

They’re still laughing when the cops show up.

One officer remains in the patrol car while the second, a skinny guy with a mustache, asks Dip to descend from the bus. Dip shows him his license and says that, no, he hasn’t seen any suspicious characters this morning. The officer checks the inside of the bus and asks who the kids are; Dip says they’re his grandchildren, Sally and Mike, on their way to meet their mom in Denver. “Mike” sits there, drooling mildly. The policeman asks if Mike is “a retard”; Dip says, “We don’t use that word, officer” (53). Worm refuses to lift her eyes from her book.

As the policeman leaves, he cautions them not to park so far from the safety of the highway. Dip remarks to Max that he’s good at “playing dumb.” Max says, “I’ve had some practice” (54).

As they drive out of the rest area, Worm notices people hiding in the bushes. They come out: One, a man, hobbles with a crutch; the other, a young, pretty woman, wears a dirty dress and looks scared. Dip helps them into the bus. They’re named Frank and Joanie, and they say they were on their way to the West Coast when hijackers stole their car and all their possessions, so now they’re broke.

Worm looks skeptical. She says the cops were just here, looking for them. Joanie seems surprised and hurt. Dip says they were investigating a hijacking. He pulls out a quarter and says he’ll dial 911 and they can file a report. Joanie begs him not to, and Frank says it’s time to tell the truth. He’s a wanted man.

Frank describes how they were working at an orphanage where the accountant stole money and made it look like Frank did it. He refers to the kids there as “crippled,” and Dip reminds him that such children are “disabled.” Frank agrees and says they have “polio and leprosy and such” (60). Dip doubts this, but he suggests they forget the past and move forward down the road. Relieved, Joanie hugs him. She discovers the fridge and asks if she can eat.

Worm sets aside her copy of A Wrinkle in Time and now reads from The Earthsea Trilogy about sorcerers and talking dragons. It reminds Max of his fantasy quests with Kevin. Suddenly he misses his life back home. Dip notices his anguish and invites him up front to keep him company. Joanie tries to pry Max’s story out of him, but he stays silent.

Worm reads for hours. After dark, she wears her helmet and switches on its light to continue reading. Joanie sits next to her and tries to get her to talk about herself, saying softly, “Whenever you’re ready, I’m here” (63). Worm doesn’t trust her any more than Max does. She ignores Joanie and keeps reading.

The next day, they stop for gas in a small farm town, but the bus’s motor won’t restart. Dip pulls out his toolbox and gets to work on it. Frank, whose bad leg miraculously healed overnight, heads off cheerfully down the street. Joanie, Worm, and Max follow.

Frank ducks into a small grocery store. He browses the aisles, then slips and falls, and boxes and cans cover him. He howls in pain over his leg, and the elderly grocer hurries over. Joanie stage-whispers that they can’t afford both a doctor and food, and Frank says they can simply go hungry for the three days left in their family’s journey to California. The grocer takes pity on him and fills two bags with groceries.

The group takes the groceries back to the bus. As they walk, Frank’s leg again heals suddenly. He says, “There’s a sucker born every minute. Right, Max?” (70). Max agrees: One of those suckers is himself.

The bus’s engine works again. Worm says to Max that Frank is one of those people who “lie so much they don’t know what the truth is” (71). Frank overhears and says the truth is overrated, and that people like his version of reality much better. Dip sees the groceries and knows Frank can’t have bought them if he’s broke. He hurries them aboard, and they continue down the road.

Max feels safe and happy in the Prairie Schooner and wishes it would never reach Montana. Dip puts on a music cassette and sings along badly to “On the Road Again,” and soon Joanie and Worm are dancing in the aisle. Afterward, Worm is smiling, but the smile disappears when Joanie suggests that Worm must have learned how to dance from her mother. Joanie presses Worm to talk about her mom, but Worm buries herself in a book. Max tells Joanie to knock it off.

Reading a newspaper, Frank announces that a guy in Kansas found a python in his toilet. Frank muses that he could make a lot of money touring that snake as an exhibit.

They cross over the Mississippi, and Dip the ex-teacher makes a big deal of it, calling it the “greatest waterway on planet Earth” and listing many impressive statistics about it (75).

That evening, they stay at a campground so they can take showers. Frank pulls Joanie aside and, slapping the newspaper, talks eagerly to her. It makes Max nervous.

Around a campfire after dinner, Max again wishes their bus-ride journey would last forever. He imagines how Kevin would have loved the trip. Dip points up at the Milky Way and says he sees in the stars a girl who looks a bit like Worm. She’s in a life-and-death battle but wins “because her heart is true” (79).

Worm falls asleep. Dip discovers that the bus’s tires are deflated. He steps inside, locates Frank’s newspaper, and finds in it an offer of $10,000 for information that leads to Max’s capture. Max won’t talk, not with Worm right there: “She can’t think about it right now, even when she’s asleep” (81). Dip goes on instinct and accepts the boy’s innocence.

A police car approaches, siren blaring; Frank and Joanie sit in the back seat. Dip hands Max some money and tells him to run. He promises, though, to see Max again someday.