62 pages 2 hours read

Katherine Dunn

Geek Love

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1989

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Book 2, Chapters 8-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 2: “Your Dragon—Care, Feeding and Identifying Fewmets”

Book 2, Chapter 8 Summary: “Educating the Chick”

Oly describes how Chick was “trained” to make use of his telekinetic powers. Al takes the normal-looking toddler on trips, during which Chick uses his powers to steal money from the wallets of people in large crowds. Arty is jealous of the large amounts of money that Chick is making for the family, plus the time Chick spends alone with Al. Arty makes Oly push his wheelchair to a phone booth, where he makes a call to sabotage the scam by alerting the hotel manager in the town Al is headed to with Chick. Al returns, not knowing how his scheme was found out. 

One of the carnival’s performers is practicing her act while Lil, Oly, and Chick watch. The dancer and her horse have a terrible fall and are severely injured. Chick is devastated and refuses to speak or eat for days. He says that he could have held the dancer up and prevented her fall, but he was afraid that Lil would be angry that he had moved a person with his mind.

Al and Horst teach Chick how to gamble and set up a new procedure for a remote scam, with Chick sending Al betting instructions through an earpiece.