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Study Guide

The Paladin Prophecy Chapter 1: Just Another Tuesday

By Mark Frost

Chapter 1: Just Another Tuesday

  • There is actually a small bit of text before chapter one, but it isn't an epigraph.
  • We're not sure who is talking, but the person/sentient animal/really smart rock says, "I couldn't see his face," and "he was headed my way."
  • No Face, huh? Maybe it's just the friendly ghost from Spirited Away.
  • With that over, we begin Chapter 1 proper.
  • Will West, a heroic name if we've ever heard one, opens his eyes. Was he the one dreaming?
  • For some reason, Will's father has a series of rules, and Will thinks of #1 every day: "The Importance of an Orderly Mind" (1.2).
  • Someone tell Dad that's a sentence fragment, and it makes no sense.
  • It's Tuesday, November 7, and Will gets ready for school.
  • Will looks outside and a bird looks in at him.
  • After a hug from Mom, Will decides to go for a morning run before school.
  • Will's dad texts him, asking how his running time is going.
  • It's a little slow this morning, because Will has the willies from a creepy black sedan that seems to be following him.
  • The car pulls up onto the pavement in front of Will.
  • Will gets a text from Dad: "RUN, WILL." (1.44) Will isn't sure if this is a coincidence or not, but he continues running at his usual pace.
  • The car leaves, but Will hears a voice inside his head that he "fits the description" (1.49).
  • Will isn't used to hearing voices, so that's weird.
  • Suddenly, the black car accelerates at him, so Will runs, and he runs fast.
  • Will flees to a public place before coming to a rest outside a diner.
  • Will realizes he has run 1.4 miles in five minutes. Someone get this kid into the Olympics.
  • At the diner, people are crowded around "a badass tricked-out hot rod" (1.70). Is it the Wienermobile?
  • Will hears a voice in his head say, "Don't touch my ride" (1.73).
  • We shift point of view briefly to the Bald Man in the black sedan. He decides to pursue the hot rod instead of Will.
  • The bald man shoots a weird robotic tracker bug onto the convertible.
  • Meanwhile, "a massive pair of buckled, battered black military boots etched with faded licks of flame stepped into view below the [diner] door" (1.84).
  • Either the driver is a disembodied pair of feet, or he's a man big enough for those shoes.
  • Will runs toward school.
  • Will doesn't see that the weird tracker bug attempts to attach itself to the man's neck, but the man shoots it with a gun.
  • After all this craziness, we have a feeling the chapter title is ironic, don't you think?
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