How It All Goes Down
El Capitan (Sing, Sing, Sing)
- We get El Capitan's memory of the Detonations: he survived by drinking water from an old water tank and ate canned tangerines.
- Now in the present, he's able to carry Wilda across a riverbank, and as he wades in the water he thinks about the spider in his leg.
- Think the water could fry it?
- Nah, it didn't. One hour left.
- He makes it a few more paces after the river and can't find the strength to go on. He tells Wilda to run without him, but she needs to sing so that no one shoots her at the Headquarters.
- But she's not singing. Why isn't she singing?
- All the sudden he hears The New Message, but she's singing it. El Capitan feels like he's at peace now. He's ready for the end.
- But apparently Helmud isn't. Sneaky Helmud pulls out his penknife and shows it to El Capitan. He's going to try to whittle that spider out of his leg.
- El Capitan figures it's their only shot, so he agrees. Check out how the chapter ends:
- "Helmud takes just a bit of the word this time—"Shhh. Shhh. Shhh."—and keeps digging" (19.40).
- Okay, so you can probably guess what that last word was. But wow: Helmud to the rescue.