Stranger Things

Ed, an ordinary third grader at Complex Elementary School, considers himself the most normal, unexceptional kid he knows, with no notable talents, hobbies, or adventures. That changes on a Friday afternoon when he trips on a curb while walking home from school and spots a silvery coin glittering in the grass. The moment he touches it, the moon rises and sets rapidly across the sky. The coin feels icy cold despite the warm air, and both sides bear the same two words: STRANGE, STRANGER.

Before Ed gets up, Mr. Sage, the owner of a local store called the New Curiosity Shop, shuffles along the sidewalk searching the grass for something he says he will not recognize until he finds it. Ed quietly pockets the coin and continues on his way to pick up his younger brother, Derwin, from kindergarten.

At home, Derwin frantically writes out a list of one thousand random words and delivers them to a tall, thin man in a small yellow house, who returns with a painting of a dragon. Derwin explains that he took Ed's earlier remark, "a picture is worth a thousand words" (14), literally and traded a thousand written words for an actual picture. Ed reflects that strange things never seem to work in his favor.

That evening, the family sits down for "Practice-Giving" dinner, a rehearsal Thanksgiving meal Ed's parents hold in September and October. Ed's older sister, Sarah Beth, who loves art and constantly creates things, sculpts a model train out of food at the kids' table. To Ed's shock, the train rolls off Sarah Beth's plate under its own power, chugs across the table, and pushes Ed's plate onto his lap, spilling hot gravy on his shoes. Ed's parents do not see what happens and blame him for the mess.

After dinner, Ed reads his little sister, Libby, the story of The Pied Piper, about a musician who lures rats from a town with his flute. Libby has a wild imagination: Whenever Ed reads her a story involving a creature, she spends the next day insisting that creature is hiding in the house. Sure enough, Saturday morning, Libby marches through the living room blowing into a soda straw like a flute, and a growing crowd of real mice follows at her heels. Ed convinces Libby to release the mice outside, but the mess they leave behind gets Ed blamed yet again. The cleanup makes him late for his best friend Moose's pool birthday party.

On his way to the party, Ed encounters Quentin One, one of three friends he has who are all named Quentin. After Quentin One rides past on a bicycle, Ed realizes Quentin is somehow still facing him despite moving in the opposite direction. Convinced the coin is causing all the strangeness, Ed flips it into the bushes outside the hotel and goes inside.

At the party, Quentin Two returns the coin to Ed, saying he saw Ed drop it. Ed reluctantly pockets it again. He and Moose, the biggest and smartest kid in their class, sit poolside wishing they had inflatable rafts. Moose devises a plan: He fills Derwin with two cherry colas, shakes him to build up gas, and tosses him into the pool as a human raft. Derwin floats until he burps, shooting underwater halfway across the pool before surfacing.

Determined to understand the coin, Ed visits Mr. Sage at the New Curiosity Shop. Mr. Sage identifies the coin as "the Silver Center" (48), a legendary object he never believed was real, and notes with alarm that its words have faded significantly. He explains that Ed must give the coin to a mysterious figure called "the Stranger" before the words vanish completely, or the world will lose all its strangeness forever. Ed suggests that losing strangeness might not be so bad, but Mr. Sage argues that strange thinkers like Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso produced humanity's greatest art and inventions. Without strangeness, the world would be dull. When Ed asks Mr. Sage to find the Stranger instead, Mr. Sage insists the task belongs to whoever found the coin and advises Ed to let his experiences guide him.

Ed tries to pass the coin to Derwin, but it burns hot in Derwin's pocket, and the coin feels cold again only when Ed takes it back. At Moose's house, Moose's older brother Mouse, who is smaller than Moose but much stronger, shows off by lifting Moose and a heavy package. When Ed jokingly says Mouse cannot lift himself, Mouse squats and rises uncontrollably into the air. After several failed rescue attempts involving a rope that drops every time Mouse opens his mouth to speak, Ed, Moose, and Derwin finally pull him down safely. Walking home, Ed recognizes that the coin's effects are becoming dangerous. He checks the coin before bed and sees the words have nearly faded away.

Sunday morning, Ed's goldfish spit gravel at their bowl, and outside, his dog Rex digs a hole and buries Ed's cat Willow in it. Overwhelmed, Ed buries the coin in the hole Rex dug. Immediately, the strange behavior stops. Soon, however, Sarah Beth, Derwin, Libby, Quentin One, Moose, and Mouse gather in the backyard and confront Ed, asking him to be "a little less strange." Each person blames Ed for the strange events surrounding them. Moose summarizes that things have always been a little strange around Ed but have been getting "even stranger," "definitely stranger," and "stranger for sure" (78). Hurt and feeling unfairly blamed, Ed retreats to his room.

Ed considers letting the coin fade and removing all strangeness from the world. He remembers how both Derwin and Moose had cried out "What a great idea!" (8, 40) in identical excitement, and he thinks about all the wonderful paintings, movies, and books that must have begun as strange ideas. He rushes outside and digs up the coin, but its face is smooth and nearly blank, with only a faint letter "r" visible.

Recalling Mr. Sage's advice, Ed pieces together the clue hidden in his friends' repeated words: "even stranger," "definitely stranger," "stranger for sure" (78). He reasons that just as a sharpener makes things sharper, the Stranger makes things stranger, and he realizes that he himself is the Stranger. He whispers to the coin, "You're mine" (82). The silver coin glows like the moon, and the words rise up bold and solid, confirming his identity. Ed feels relieved that strangeness is saved but worries his friends and family will no longer want him around.

His fears prove unfounded. Sarah Beth, Moose, Derwin, and the others return to apologize, telling Ed that nothing fun happens without him. Ed begins to glimpse the extent of his power: When he tells Libby that "money doesn't grow on trees" (86), Derwin interprets the saying literally, and Mouse lifts a nearby tree to reveal a dollar bill underneath. The ice-cream truck driver takes the dollar and hands Derwin a cone. Sarah Beth declares the cone looks like a rocket ship, turns it upside down, and it launches into the sky. Ed feels a tingle and recognizes his power at work. Across the street, he spots Mr. Sage, holds up the coin, and points at himself; Mr. Sage nods and walks away. Ed tells Libby he will read her a story but sets ground rules: no mice, snakes, or giant spiders, only small, friendly dragons. He whispers, "I am the Stranger" (90), and embraces his place at the center of his own "Looniverse," his personal world of strangeness, looking forward to the adventures ahead.