The Season of Styx Malone

The next day after lunch, Caleb and Bobby Gene meet Styx in the woods for a trip to the pond. Pixie comes along as well. They sit on the log and talk; Styx says he was named for the mythological Greek river over which one must cross to reach the underworld. Caleb is impressed. The boys discuss the need to get the motor; Styx says they need a complete day, so Cory Cormier will have to cover for them. Caleb seizes the moment to establish a new personality for himself and brashly suggests they swim, even though he knows it is clearly against his parents’ rules. Bobby Gene follows Styx right in and Caleb goes too. Pixie tells Caleb she chose her nickname to match Styx’s name (Pixie-Styx).

Later, while Bobby Gene and Caleb find LEGOs to build a model of the moped, Mom tells them to take out the trash. Caleb believes that he and Bobby Gene are “soul-deep” in “the redesign process” (147) so he tells Mom they will “pencil it in for after supper” (147). Mom is furious. Bobby Gene saves Caleb by pulling him along to complete the chore. All Caleb can think is how Styx gets to act on his own behalf.

Cory Cormier says no to their request to cover for them so they can have one entire day to take care of “business” with Styx. Cory’s Uncle Greg comes by; Caleb notices that he is a young man on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Caleb and Bobby Gene meet Styx on the way to the pond. They are expecting Pixie as well, but Styx sadly says that DCS (Department of Child Services) took her away. Caleb does not understand; Bobby Gene tells him that Pixie got moved to a new foster home. Styx tells the boys missing her won’t change a thing; she won’t be back. Caleb sees that Styx’s “freedom came with a price” (154). At the pond, Caleb asks about Styx’s preference for candy cigarettes. Styx says he likes them because he can pretend it burns like a “tiny bonfire” (156). This gets Caleb thinking that Dad can build a bonfire that night.

Mom invites Cory Cormier to the bonfire as well. Caleb explains to Styx to set his hot dog buns up with all the condiments, then take the uncooked hot dogs to the fire on sticks to cook them. Mom makes them all eat two cooked carrots each before she will allow them to take the hotdogs—even Dad.

Styx has never been to a bonfire nor cooked hot dogs outdoors before; he drops the first two into the ashes. He apologizes. Dad takes the two dropped hot dogs and says he will eat them. He tells Styx that dropped hot dogs are easy to deal with on his “positivity scale” or Dad’s way of balancing problems to keep them low on a scale of positive to negative. They eat hot dogs and s’mores until past bedtime. When Mrs. Cormier returns to collect Cory, Styx tells Bobby Gene and Caleb to try bribing Cory with baby time, since he enjoyed his time entertaining Susie that night. Styx tells the boys their parents are cool when Mom and Dad go inside.

Cory is happy with the idea of getting to visit and play with Susie; he agrees to cover for the boys so they can attend to business with Styx. Cory tells them his Uncle Greg is soon going to be father, and he (Cory) can’t wait to have a cousin. Later, Caleb and Bobby Gene go to Styx’s house to tell him that his idea to bribe Cory worked, but Styx is sitting very close together with a girl named Lisa on the front porch. She talks to the boys like she thinks of them as much younger. She asks if they are Styx’s brothers, and he says yes. Caleb thinks Styx was “letting her believe what she wanted to believe” (171).

Seeing Styx with Lisa and hearing the way he had told her that he had brothers affects Caleb. He now cannot figure out why Styx keeps their plan to get the motor secret from them. Before Bobby Gene and Caleb leave to go on the motor adventure with Styx, Caleb tries to ask Dad how you can really tell what someone is thinking. Dad says sometimes you never know. Caleb reflects that it seems like he and Bobby Gene know each other’s thoughts because they are so close. He does not know what Styx’s secrets could be.

Caleb and Bobby Gene arrive with a bag of sandwiches and snacks. Styx takes the paper sack and uses a handkerchief to tie the paper sack into a knotted pouch on the end of a walking stick. Caleb jokes about hopping trains, but in fact that is exactly what Styx has them do: At the trainyard, they climb into a boxcar. Soon the train starts moving and leaves the station. Styx leans out the open door. Caleb wants to try it too, but not Bobby Gene. The strain of holding on to the metal bar while the wind whips by hurts Caleb’s arms.

They ride for over an hour. Styx tells them that they must jump off when the train slows going around a bend he calls Dead Man’s Curve. Bobby Gene is scared but manages to jump. They walk a long ways, then climb a low fence into the property of someone with dilapidated house and junk in the yard. Styx won’t tell the boys whose property it is but acts as if he knows the man: “He always keeps at least one of everything he might need. He's compulsive like that” (185). When they find the motor they want, Styx leaves the lunchbox in its place. As they turn to go, a voice yells at them from the deck of the run-down house.

The man has a limp and calls Styx by name. He yells for Styx to come to him. The three boys run toward the train. Caleb and Bobby are very upset; it certainly seems as if they stole the motor. They get back to Dead Man’s Curve just in time. Bobby Gene is afraid to try to board the moving train despite Styx telling him how easy it will be. Styx jumps up and into boxcar first, then helps Caleb in; then they both work to pull Bobby in. By the time they do, the train is speeding up. Between the theft and the train scare, Caleb and Bobby Gene are upset. Even Caleb sees the danger: “What the heck did you get us into?” (189). Styx tries to calm them, but Caleb sticks with Bobby Gene; the two brothers link arms. Caleb thinks how no one knows they are on the train with Styx. He decides that Styx’s stories are sometimes made up.