Squirm

Back in Florida, Billy returns to his summer job of bagging groceries at Publix. Nothing has changed. His mother is still an Uber driver who spends her weekends watching the local eagle nest, but she mentions that she’s seen a gray drone hovering around the house lately. Billy suspects that this might be his father’s, but he doesn’t share his thoughts with Chrissie. One day, Billy is bagging groceries at Publix when he sees Chin and his father. He tries to avoid speaking, but Chin still appears grateful for the day when Billy saved him from the school bully.

That evening, Belinda’s boyfriend, Dawson, shows up. Billy can’t stand Dawson and thinks he is a pretentious braggart. Out in the backyard, Billy is practicing with his slingshot, using BB pellets to knock coconuts off a tree. Dawson wants to try but proves totally inept. Angry at his own poor performance, he takes aim at the neighbor’s cat, but Billy tackles him, demanding, “Why would you want to shoot somebody’s pet cat? [...] Where’s the sport in that? You’re pathetic” (88). Suddenly, Billy sees a drone overhead. He tells Dawson to go back inside, and then he takes aim at the tiny aircraft.

When the drone comes within range, Billy is able to snap off one of its prop blades with a BB from his slingshot. He takes the broken part and the downed drone into the garage, assuming that his father will come by later to claim it. At dinner, Billy casually starts a conversation about the neighbor’s cat. Dawson sheepishly says nothing, fearing that Billy will expose his cruelty. As Billy’s narration observes, “He looks like a person who almost shot a heartbroken widow’s beloved pet. My sister would dump him in a nanosecond if she knew what he’d done” (91). Billy doesn’t betray the secret, hoping that Dawson will begin behaving like a human being in the future.

Later, someone arrives to claim the drone, but it isn’t Dennis. It’s a local surfer named Limpy. It only takes a few moments of conversation for Billy to realize that Limpy knows nothing about drones. After dinner, Billy tracks Limpy down at his house and forces him to confess that a man paid him to claim the aircraft. This unknown person is staying at a local motel, and Billy makes Limpy drive him there.

Limpy drops Billy off in front of the Purple Pelican Motel, a seedy establishment near the highway. It’s now after sunset, and Billy waits until he sees his father’s red truck pull up. When Dennis enters his room, Billy knocks repeatedly but gets no answer. Several minutes later, Dennis pokes his head out and is startled by the sight of Billy. He starts running away, but the boy pursues and tackles him. When the two sort the situation out, Billy learns that his father didn’t recognize him and thought he was a mugger. Dennis was on his way to the Dickens house to apologize. He is wearing a black suit and tie for what he anticipates will be a funereal occasion.

Billy insists on hearing his father’s story before they get to the house. Dennis says that after his parents died, his Aunt Sophie put him through college and allowed him to get a degree in wildlife ecology and conservation, even though he had no idea what he would do with the degree. Later, after she died, she left him her fortune. It was enough to take care of both his families in Montana and Florida. Dennis confesses that he doesn’t work for the government. He purchased the drone himself and is self-employed. Before he discloses the nature of his business, he asks Billy to make him a promise. The boy agrees but demands something in return.

When Dennis and Billy arrive at the Dickens house, Chrissie gives her ex-husband a kind reception. However, Belinda is hostile and doesn’t trust her father’s motives. He tries to explain himself, saying, “I loved you kids, and I loved your mother,’ he says, ‘but it got to feel like I couldn’t breathe. I had to leave. At least I thought I had to leave. So I did” (118-19). Billy believes that his father’s portrayal of himself as a younger man is less than flattering. Dennis admits that he felt ashamed and guilty for not getting back in touch and claims that Billy’s trip to Montana finally convinced him to reestablish contact with his abandoned family. When Chrissie asks about his work, Dennis says it’s top secret and he can’t talk about it. Billy has agreed not to expose the truth and backs Dennis’s story.

Later, Belinda tells Billy why she is so hostile to Dennis. She thinks that their mother still has feelings for their father and hasn’t yet moved on from the relationship. When Billy and Dennis go into the garage to view Billy’s snake collection, they talk about the issue. Apparently, Dennis and Chrissie have cleared the air and don’t have any unfinished business between them. Dennis helps Billy release his captured snakes back into the wild. (Billy needs to do this because he intends to go on a road trip with his father.) Dennis is tracking someone who should be in jail. As the price for Billy’s silence about his real job, Dennis has agreed to take the boy along with him. As Billy’s narration explains, “I’m talking about the man we’ll be chasing, the one my father followed all the way across the country, from Montana to Florida. The same man who flattened Dad’s tires and shot a hole in his truck trying to scare him off” (125).