Wink

It’s the second day Ross wears the hat. It’s also Halloween. Ross feels like something is off at school: The other students are not teasing him about the hat, but they’re looking at him oddly or pointedly avoiding looking at him. He catches glimpses of kids whispering to each other as they glance at him.

Abby is oblivious; she attributes the attention to Ross’s hat and celebrity status and urges him to enjoy it. However, Ross is panicking by the time he meets her for lunch. He demands she tell him why people are looking at him strangely since no one else will say. She still doesn’t know, but she promises to discover the reason. Abby then distracts Ross with normal conversation so that by the time lunch is finished, he has his smile back.

Ross’s classmates give him “weird stares” for the remainder of the day. During treatment, Frank starts his CD from where they last stopped. Ross thinks, “Despite the risk of zapping my eyeball—or the knowledge that I’m getting nuked like a microwave corn dog—I’m able to relax and get into the songs” (87). He draws a corn dog on a plate with music notes floating above it. The songs he hears are perfect for his emotional state, and for a while he can escape his thoughts. After treatment, Frank gives him the CD.

Ross’s father takes Ross to Abby’s house because the friends plan to trick-or-treat together; in the past, he and Abby would have gone to Isaac’s house. When Abby meets Ross at her front door, she looks worried, she isn’t wearing her costume, and she’s chewing her hair. She’s discovered that three pictures are circulating among the student body through social media and texts, and the subject of the pictures is Ross. The first “meme” is a photo of Ross with a cowboy hat roughly sketched on his head, a speech bubble that says, “Yee haw!”, and “Cancer Boy” printed in large letters underneath. The second picture shows Ross with the body of a sickly older man; he is wearing a hospital gown and using a cane and an IV stand to keep his balance. At the top are the letters “TFW,” and at the bottom are the words “You poop your hospital gown” (91). There’s a gaseous speech bubble erupting from Ross’s behind; “frp” indicates the sound of Ross defecating. The third meme is a cartoon depicting Death standing outside an airport, holding a sign as if it’s a hired driver. Ross’s name is on the sign.

Ross is hurt, incensed, frightened, and confused. He refuses to report the memes to the principal because he wants to pretend that the images don’t exist. Abby pinky swears she won’t talk about them. She tries to soothe Ross’s agitation, but Ross rushes out of the house. He questions his assumptions about everyone at school and about his chances of survival.

Abby catches up to Ross, but he can’t endure interacting with her or anyone else. He walks home, crying and fuming. When he reaches his house, his father doesn’t bother him with questions. Ross is angry at the world; he’s even angry at himself for having cancer. He listens to Frank’s CD with earbuds and puts a pillow over his head. The music gradually relaxes him. The guitars reflect what he feels the best. He falls asleep after listening to the mix approximately three times.

Ross has a flashback about his first meeting with Dr. Throckton. It’s the morning after Dr. Inzer told him she’d have to remove the right eye and eye socket and then blind the left eye with radiation. Ross wonders what his life will be like when he loses his sight and how well he will remember images over time. Imagining his memory altering Homer Simpson into a mutated version, he draws a picture of the altered Homer with an ape-like muzzle, sharp teeth, and a slightly hunched back.

Ross studies pictures of his mother and reads a letter she wrote to him when he was nearly four years old. He wants to remember her face accurately and wishes he could talk to her about cancer. Ross draws “Batpig Super Misses His Mom” (102). Batpig feels emotions that confuse him while he reflects on memories of his mother. In the final frame, the narrator asserts, “He’ll never forget, you know. But he can still fly off and Batpig it up” (102).

Ross wonders how the surgery will alter his appearance and considers researching facial prosthetics, but he procrastinates. Ross’s parents offer to treat him in different ways. Ross refuses the treats and goes to the basement, where he lies down for a nap before walking around the room with his eyes closed to simulate blindness.

Dr. Sheffler calls Ross’s father about setting up a meeting with Dr. Throckton, a specialist in proton radiotherapy. Throckton tells Ross and his father that he can successfully treat Ross’s cancer without radical surgery; he insists Ross shouldn’t let any surgeon remove his right eye. This is the moment the Maloys assign Dr. Throckton the nickname “the Man with All the Answers” (106).

Throckton explains his analysis of Ross’s tumor in comprehensible language and then discusses the benefits of proton radiotherapy. Ross will lose sight in the right eye, but he will not lose the eye itself or the orbit, and he won’t lose vision in his left eye. Ross quickly accepts Throckton’s treatment plan. He’ll have surgery to excise the tumor and, once recovered, receive proton radiotherapy treatments. Despite the side effects he has to look forward to, Ross feels “like a million bucks” (107). He draws Batpig sitting on piles of money with the caption, “Million-Dollar Batpig” (108).