Skippy Dies

Skippy runs back to his dorm room, alarmed by Howard’s attempt to reach out. He starts packing his clothes when he suddenly sees a flying saucer swooping past the window.

In his laboratory, Ruprecht is working on a device meant to communicate with aliens. The power fluctuates, and Ruprecht assumes that the device has failed to function. However, the TV comes on, and a familiar person starts talking about “the addition of a further dimension” (129), inspiring Ruprecht.

When Ruprecht returns to his room, he tells Skippy that an infinite number of universes exist, thanks to the presence of a previously unknown 11th dimension. Skippy doesn’t pay attention, though, distracted by an attractive girl playing frisbee with her friends. Dennis and Mario arrive and notice the girl as well, calling her Skippy’s girlfriend. Skippy expresses his hope that she will go to the Hallowe’en Hop. Ruprecht sees Skippy’s medicine bottle and reads the label, asking who TR Roche is. Their friends turn their attention to the clothes on Skippy’s bed and ask if he is going anywhere. He tells them that he isn’t.

Howard joins the teachers for drinks at a nearby pub. He previously despised the idea of going but comes this time in hopes that Aurelie will too. Howard tells Farley that he simply wants to upend the monotony of his life through his interactions with Aurelie. Farley tells Howard that Aurelie is volunteering as a chaperone at the Hallowe’en Hop.

Howard realizes that his anxiety to settle down with Halley is tied to Jim Slattery, his former teacher. After his wife left him, he was teased by Howard’s classmates, prompting him to flee the classroom. Howard is haunted by the memory of Slattery’s face, no longer certain whether he joined in bullying the teacher.

Carl and Barry have developed a sustainable business model supplying pills to the St. Brigid’s girls. They spend their money on branded goods and explore the possibility of expanding into illegal drugs. Carl worries about competition from the other drug dealers, but Barry is confident that their business will stay afloat. Meanwhile, Carl continues to deal with Lori in exchange for sexual favors, though Lori will only go so far as to let him touch her breasts.

One night, Carl and Lori are sitting on the roof of Ed’s Doughnut House when she suggests harassing the Asian employees. They run into the woods, and Carl is about to put his hand down her pants when her father calls. Lori decides to return home, disappointing Carl.

At home, Carl masturbates to pornographic pictures when he overhears his mother threatening to divorce his father, who is accused of having an affair with a teenage girl. Carl tries to study, but then he gets a text from Lori telling him that she’s looking for some excitement. Frustrated by the lack of sex, Carl acknowledges her message.

Skippy and Ruprecht become more fixated on their respective discoveries. Ruprecht explains M-theory and string theory to Mario and Dennis. Meanwhile, Skippy describes “Frisbee Girl” to another friend, Titch Fitzpatrick, who may know her identity. Titch tells Skippy to let him know when he sees her again.

Ruprecht entertains his friends with the possibility of alternate universe shapes, noting that he hopes to watch an upcoming online roundtable with Professor Tamashi. He is reminded, however, that the roundtable is scheduled for the same night as the Hallowe’en Hop.

Skippy wonders if he might have imagined Frisbee Girl altogether. During the last swim training before midterm break, Coach Tom talks to Skippy about his absences, telling him that he’ll need to catch up with the rest of the team over midterm. Coach Tom expresses his concern for Skippy and warmly tells him that they can talk anytime.

The Irish class teacher, Ms. Ni Riain, discusses Halloween’s Celtic roots. She explains that Halloween can be traced to Samhain, a Celtic rite that saw the gates to the Otherworld opening for ancient forces to roam the human world. She tells them that the forces most often associated with Samhain were fairy-like creatures called the Sidhe, who regularly played cruel tricks on people and were said to live in burial mounds.

The second-year students prepare for the Hallowe’en Hop. Skippy dresses up as the elven main character from Hopeland. Before going to the mixer venue, he considers taking another pill, having withdrawn himself from drug consumption ever since he discovered Frisbee Girl. He doesn’t feel inclined to take one, but he packs it in his costume anyway as a precaution.

The St. Brigid’s girls begin to arrive, many of them in revealing costumes. At the entrance to the venue, Acting Principal Greg Costigan gives Howard and Aurelie instructions on supervising. Father Green observes Skippy entering the mixer.

Geoff points out Frisbee Girl to Skippy. Titch tells them that her name is Lorelei Wakeham, Lori for short. He also tells them that her standards for boys are high, which is likely why she is single. The only proof suggesting otherwise is that Titch had seen Lori with Carl, whom they all recognize as one of the school bullies.

Skippy’s friends encourage him to go up to Lori. Skippy works up the courage to say hello.

Carl gets texts from Lori inviting him to meet her at the Hallowe’en Hop. He prepares to leave while entertaining perverse fantasies of the Hop ending in flames and of Lori doing what he wants out of desperation for pills.

Carl’s mother comes up to him to tell him about her separation from his father. Barry texts Carl to tell him that he might make a move on Lori, and Carl worries that she might choose to have sex with Barry. Carl excuses himself to go to the Hop.

On his way out, he decides to steal his mom’s sleeping pills to use as date-rape drugs. Unsure which bottle is the right one, he takes all of them. He also finds a bottle labeled Zenohypnotan, a sleeping aid that the label warns should not be consumed with alcohol. Carl imagines trying to give Lori a spiked drink; in his fantasy, though, she refuses to take it, and he becomes angry. The narrative makes it clear that his mother uses alcohol and drugs to cope with her stressors.

Howard and Aurelie chaperone the dance, too busy to talk. Howard is convinced that engaging Aurelie in an affair would be pointless. Suddenly, Howard hears someone punching the doors. He investigates and finds Carl, who has blacked out his face. Concerned that Carl is already inebriated, Howard refuses him entry.

Howard turns nostalgic as he returns to the party, first recalling his mixer and then his class reunion. Aurelie checks in with him, correctly guessing what he had been thinking about. They both reveal that their respective mixers were unsuccessful, which prompts Aurelie to ask Howard to dance. Howard is too shy, so Aurelie convinces him to sneak away and have fun with her.

Lori is disappointed that Carl hasn’t shown up, and her friends try to get her to enjoy the night. Everyone else is irritated with the mixer DJ for only playing old songs and refusing to take requests. The power goes out. When the DJ tries to look for the chaperones, they are nowhere to be found.

Barry gets a text from Carl asking to let him in. Skippy’s friends urge him to talk to Lori while she is alone, but he is still too anxious to do it. While trying to use his asthma inhaler, Dennis pushes him over to Lori. While they watch him, Geoff suggests that the otherworldliness of Samhain might mean that Skippy will succeed in charming Lori. When Dennis reminds them of the date, Ruprecht suddenly runs out, remembering the online roundtable he wanted to attend.

Skippy and Lori awkwardly introduce themselves to one another. When she asks him if he has any drugs, he produces the inhaler and the painkillers he kept in his costume. Lori wonders about mixing the two together and invites Skippy to leave the party with her. Skippy’s friends are pleasantly surprised. Carl finally arrives and demands to know where Lori is.

Howard and Aurelie end up in her classroom to make cocktails. Aurelie talks about how passionate her class has become toward the environment. Howard flirts with her. She asks him why he abandoned his finance career. He explains that he was exhausted by it. Aurelie connects this to his cowardly reputation and recalls Tom’s bungee-jumping accident, suggesting that he took Howard’s place when Howard was too scared to go. His guilt led him to become a teacher because it was so devoid of risk. He notes that she wanted to be a teacher as well, and she tells him that she did it out of a desire for change because they have “a duty to do whatever it takes not to be bored” (209). She and Howard start kissing and move to the table to have sex.

Ruprecht watches the roundtable with Professor Tamashi, where he answers questions about M-theory and hyperspace travel. The novel interrupts the roundtable with Lori’s question about mixing asthma inhaler and painkillers and proceeds to narrate Skippy’s experience of taking the drugs with Lori from a second-person perspective.

High from the drugs, Skippy and Lori run around town together. Carl repeatedly tries to call Lori on her phone, but she ignores him. They end up at Ed’s Doughnut House, where they get something to eat. They get into a food fight, throwing doughnuts until they are forced out of the shop. While walking, they talk about their costumes, Skippy’s life as a boarder, and his swimming trophy. Skippy confides that he wants to quit swimming because he doesn’t really like it. Lori tells him that she wants to be good at singing but has stage fright. She confesses that she doesn’t really feel special before deciding to go home.

Professor Tamashi returns to compare the Big Bang to a ship he saw as a child. The ship was destroyed by a rogue wave, which the professor likens to the various universes tearing through the 11th dimension. He theorizes that the Big Bang occurred when two older universes collided into one another.

Skippy listens to Lori sing while they walk through the suburbs hand in hand. They reach her house, and when Skippy tells her good night, she kisses him. She realizes that he has never kissed anyone before, and they kiss some more. When she leaves, Skippy sees stars everywhere around him.