Max the Mighty

Max sets down Worm and they hurry to Gran and Grim’s house. The police already are there, though, knocking on the door. Max and Worm hide in the bushes and listen. Gran and Grim come to the door. The Undertaker angrily insists that Max broke into his home, knocked out his wife, and kidnapped his daughter. Grim insists that Max wouldn’t do such a thing, and that fingerprints will prove it.

Max knows that his prints are all over the Undertaker’s front door. Worm groans and says, “I knew it. Nobody can stop him” (31). Max realizes they must run away.

Worm says the Undertaker can make her mother say anything. He beats her, the cops show up, and she says it’s her fault. Worm wants to locate her real father, who can help. Max’s hopes rise. She says he lives in Montana. Max’s hopes come crashing down. He wishes Keven were still alive: He’d think of Worm as “a damsel in distress” (34), work up an adventurous plan to rescue her, and all would turn out well. Instead, Max simply agrees to go with her to Montana.

As they hurry across town, Max stumbles against a trash can and knocks it over.