Chapter+Summaries

Chapter 1
Nick describes himself, the world around him, and tells about him getting curious when he sees Augustus Bede building something in his living room. He asks about Augustus to several parents with negative remarks toward the man.

Chapter 2
Nick tries to get more information on Augustus Bede. This eventually leads him to the UConn library where he finds out that Augustus Bede's wife was murdered. The officials blamed him for the murder but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Nick then feels sorry for Mr. Bede and decides to set things straight.

Chapter 3
Nick finds out he made the baseball team but he isn't playing shortstop. That night, Nick sees Mr. Bede kneeling by his wife's grave through his telescope. After some time, Mr. Bede gets off and walks off to the east favoring his right leg. The next day, Paul (One of Nick's friends.) suggests he talk to his Grandfather. At baseball practice, Nick fouls almost every pitch on the field.

Chapter 4
Nick visits Paul's grandfather on Sunday afternoon. Grandpa Jones tells Nick about how Augustus was in the same class as him. He was terribly smart and was mostly a loner. But when you brought up a conversation with him, he was perfectly friendly. Augustus was always fixing things for people and doing favors. All he asked was for the person to keep him supplied with mechanical parts. After graduating High School, Bede went to M.I.T in Boston. Then after many years, Bede married Mary Packard. People were confused by this because Mary was attractive and nice while Bede was tall, skinny, and a loner. Then one night Bede came home to find Mary dead. After the officials framed the crime on Augustus, the entire town was divided. People fought over the question of wherever Bede was guilty or not. Grandpa Jones then tells Nick to be careful because of the chance of the murderer coming after him and the chance of people fighting again when Nick starts to stir up things. Nick then tells him that he'll be careful, while hiding his true intentions of stirring things up ALOT. Nick just has to find out how he's going to stir things up...

Chapter 5
Nick goes down to the batting cages with Ronnie and Paul to exercise his batting skills. When Nick starts to miss every pitch, (with a few fouls) a man approaches him with an alternative. He gives him a new, wooden bat and Nick nails every pitch dead on. This person tells Nick how he makes these special bats with an invention and that Augustus Bede made the machine that can produce them. The man introduces himself as Tom Baines and gives Nick his card. At home, Nick shows the bat to his parents. They accuse him of stealing the product before Nick promptly ends their speculations by handing them Tom Baine's business card. Nick's father asks who made the machine with a reply by Nick that gets his mother agitated. She ends the talk about going and talking to Mr. Bede. Instead, Nick and his father visit Tom Baines in his shop where he shows them the machine making the bats. Nick then decides that he is going to talk to Mr. Bede no matter what his mom says.

Chapter 6
Nick has an average day at school until he is asked to the school dance on Friday by a person called Cindy Bonney. Nick knows Cindy from first grade. Although they never really talked that much. Nick hits almost every pitch dead on in baseball practice because of his new bat. He expects coach to praise him, but starts to mope when he doesn't. All week, Nick watches Mr. Bede through his telescope. But he isn't limping. In fact, he almost runs sometimes. With the dance coming up, Nick decides to check his face for zits every second of the day. His plan is just to go with the flow.

Chapter 7
Nick's plan starts to fall apart when his art teacher, Miss Foster sends him to the office with a sealed note. He meets with Miss Wortmann and she reads the letter. (She hangs out with Miss Foster) Miss Wortmann accuses Nick of taking drugs because of his behavior. Nick denies this claim and Miss Wortmann checks him for any drugs. Having found none on him, she then starts to threaten him with after school detention that will replace his baseball practices in hopes of Nick getting mad enough to get expelled. Nick starts to feel a zit growing on his head and realizes she is ruining his life and all he can do is take it. Then he says "I think it was nice of Miss Foster to give me one of her pills. It made me a whole lot calmer." Miss Wortmann then asks Nick if he has told anyone else. Nick says no and Miss Wortmann says she'll look into it. Nick runs out of the office feeling VERY scared and frightened. Nick then goes in the bathroom and finds out his zit is starting to grow. At baseball practice, Nick scorches the other team entirely. He then notices that his zit is gone. However at the dance, Cindy did not dance with Nick. He then gets into his mom's car with Paul and Ronnie and decide to go to a new pizza place across town. After eating there, the boys drive home when they see that the car up ahead of them is smashing mailboxes. They then find out that Mike Oliver and Hamm are in the car (They are the bullies of the school and everyone is afraid of them.) Nick decides to get out of there fast because someone might have seen his car.

Chapter 8
Nick comes downstairs in the morning to find that all of his family members are out of the house. Nick then decides to visit Mr. Bede. He approaches his house and hesitates before Augustus Bede notices him. Bede then shows Nick around his house and all the inventions he's been working on for the past months. Nick then asks him about the murder and he recalls the incident. He says to Nick that he might stir things up enough for the murderer to come after him. He leaves Mr. Bede's house with the decision that he could not have murdered his wife. He calls Ronnie and asks him who would know about Mary Bede. Ronnie says his mom would know some things about Mary. Nick asks Ronnie's mother about Mary and she says her cousin Rachel Mason would know. She warns him that the murderer might not be too happy about someone stirring things up. Nick then realizes that was the second person who said that today.