Geek Love

One day, while Lil is pregnant with Chick, she decides to take all the other children shopping in the town near where the Fabulon is parked.  

Abruptly, the reader is introduced to a new character, Vern Bogner, a local  

man who works in a grocery store, and the story is briefly told from his point of view. Vern is unhappy with his life, and is disliked and disrespected by his wife and children. He pulls into a shopping mall parking lot and sees Lil getting out of her van: “Then the things crawled out of the van and began milling around the tall pregnant woman” (58). Vern pulls his gun out and loads it. 

Oly realizes that she has been shot and sees that Arty and the twins have been shot as well. A paramedic arrives and tends to their wounds. Vern is handcuffed by the police and is despondent and ashamed that he failed to kill the children. The Binewskis all ride to the hospital with the paramedic, who appears frightened of them all.  

The doctors and nurses stitch up the children’s wounds, visibly disgusted and distracted by their deformities. A doctor begins to examine Oly all over her body, though Oly can tell that the doctor “hated to touch me. I could feel it and my stomach got cold inside” (62). Arty becomes distraught by the doctor’s actions and attitude and yells for the doctor to leave Oly alone. He is afraid that he and his siblings will be taken away from Lil.  

As the children all cry out and struggle, Al comes into the emergency room, accompanied by Horst the Cat Man. Al confers with the head doctor, who “gave up and said that he wouldn’t be responsible” (63), and the children are released to their parents. 

This chapter is the story of Chick’s birth. Lil is anxiously examining the newborn baby, searching for signs of deformity, but he appears to be a “norm,” a regular baby. Lil and Al are devastated. 

The family prepares to abandon the new baby so that a normal family can raise him. Lil thinks they should leave him in a warm laundromat. Al ponders the right type of business to leave him in front of, one where a solid citizen would find him. Since it’s the middle of the night, Arty suggests a gas station, and Al agrees. 

Lil tearfully writes a note to leave with the baby while Al prepares a box, careful to leave no fingerprints or careless items that could identify the family. Just as they stop at a gas station, the baby wakes and Lil worries that he will be hungry. Lil wants to wait and feed the baby, but Al insists that there is no time. Al steps down from the van; suddenly, Lil is thrust towards the box. Lil shrieks as she is lifted off the floor, her brassiere rips open, and she dives into the box chest-first. The baby, wanting to nurse, has telekinetically brought his mother to him. 

The family is in shock. Al sends the other children back to bed. Arty and Oly hear Al eventually say to Lil, “He’s a keeper, darling. He’s the finest thing we’ve done!”(71). Oly worries that Arty will be miserable hearing this. 

In the morning, Al tells the children that they are keeping the baby, who he has named Fortunato, because he is lucky. Al cautions the children not to tell anyone except Horst about the baby’s ability to move things with his mind until they figure out how to deal with it. They give the baby the nickname Chick. After a few months of research and trial and error, the family trains Chick not to move objects at will, so that he can be brought out among the others in the carnival camp. 

Oly recounts how Arty was deeply jealous of his siblings, except for her: “He didn’t mind me so much because money was the gauge of his envy and I didn’t make any” (74). Arty needs to know constantly how much money the twins’ act is bringing in, so he can compare it to his own number of tickets sold. 

Arty regularly pretends to drown himself in his tank, which tortures Oly. Arty mocks Oly for being too “ordinary” and threatens to have her sent away to an “institution.” Arty tells Oly that the only reason she was kept as a newborn was because Lil had recently lost another baby, a lizard-like creature that would have been a successful carnival draw. Arty says, “Poor Leona. She just went to sleep one night and never woke up” (77). Oly feels extreme fear upon hearing these words.

Oly pushes Arty’s wheelchair to the kennel where the carnival dogs are kept. They ask the dog trainer if they can play with a dog named Skeet. The dog is friendly and happy to go off with the children. Arty stares intently at Skeet, who becomes confused, then agitated, then terrorized. Arty says they can take the dog back now, since “I can practice my hate thoughts on the norms in the midway, too” (78). 

One day, Oly is in the family van, waiting for Chick to wake from his nap. She becomes distracted by the chatter and laughter of the carnival workers just outside and goes out to listen. She hears a loud slam coming from the bedroom in the van and Chicks starts screaming. Oly rushes in and finds Chick howling on the bed, upset but unharmed. Then she sees Arty on the floor, unconscious. She also sees a pillow by the foot of the bed and, remembering the story about Leona, Oly realizes that Arty had tried to smother Chick, who telekinetically threw Arty against the ceiling. 

To prevent Al and Lil from knowing this, Oly pulls Arty into the living section of the van. Arty is taken to the infirmary, where he awakes with a concussion and claims he can’t remember what happened. After some time, Arty recovers enough to perform his act again.