Now that I have finished the early chapters of Holes and reached about the half way point the story is getting deeper, darker, and more interesting. The characters are developing and showing there true colors and forming different relationships with other characters.
Stanley returns to his hole after showing Mr.Pendanski the fossil. X-Ray is sitting at the hole when Stanley returns. X-Ray informs Stanley that if he finds anything then he should give it to X-Ray because how is it fair that X-Ray has been there longer and Stanley has only been there a few days and if anyone was to get the day off it should be X-Ray because he has dug alot more holes then Stanley. Stanley agrees that if he finds anything he will give it to X-Ray. I think that Stanley was also partially scared of X-Ray and that's part of why he agreed. While digging Stanley imagines his camp mates all going to the same school and being friends with each other. Whenever someone would pick on Stanley he would have X-Ray or Squid back him up and tell the bully's to lay off. Stanley finishes his hole last again and returns to his tent where his camp mates are sitting in a circle with Mr.Pendanski. Mr.Pendanski is asking all of the boys what they would like to do with their future and none of them are taking it seriously. Mr.Pendanski asks Magnet and he says he wants to be a animal trainer and train animals for movies. Then he asks Zero and all Zero says is he likes digging holes. Stanley leaves and takes a shower then goes to bed.
The next day Stanley is digging and finds a gold tube in his hole. He cleans it off and looks at the bottom to see the letters KB engraved with a heart around them. Stanley thought about not giving it to X-Ray until someone saw him holding it. He gave it to X-Ray but told him not to use it that day since he was almost done his hole and he could use it tomorrow instead and get the whole day off. X-Ray agreed and let Stanley move one spot ahead in the water line so he was no longer in last and in front of Zero. The next day Stanley and X-Ray are eating breakfast and Stanley asks "Do you have the thing" X-Ray Replies with "What thing?" Stanley says "You know..." "No I dont know go away I dont want to talk to you!" Says X-Ray. Stanley wondered why X-Ray was being so mean and not answering his question. X-Ray gives the Gold Tube to Mr.Pendanski when he comes to give the boys water. Mr.Pendanski takes X-Ray to show it to the warden and X-Ray gets the day off. The Warden comes back to the Holes and tells the boys to start digging in partners.The Warden calls everyone by there nicknames how does she know their nicknames? ZigZag, Armpit Dig toghether, Magnet and Squid Dig another hole and Stanley, Zero, Dig another. The Warden gets with a fight Mr.Pendanski when she tells him to fill their canteens again even though Mr.Pendanski just filled them. She Stays there all day and says she will return tomorrow. When walking back to camp ZigZag tells Stanley that she has little cameras and microphones that are very small all around Camp Green Lake and that is how she knew their nicknames and thats why X-Ray wouldnt talk to Stanley this morning.
The next day they dig in the same place and make all 3 holes into one big one. When digging Stanley gets to close to ZigZag and he Accidentally hits Stanley in the head with his shovel. Stanley falls down and is left with a small gash below his ear. Stanley continues to dig while hurt. The Warden realizes that it isn't safe for them to all dig so close to each other and decides that they will all dig their own holes in a different place the next day since they weren't finding anything else anyways. Stanley returns to camp and is given a letter from Mr.Pendanski. It is from his mom, Stanley opens it and reads it. Stanley notices Zero reading over his shoulder and tells him that hes not comfortable with him reading it. Zero says he isnt reading it and that he doesnt know how to read then asks Stanley if he can teach him to read and write and Stanley says no. When the water truck leaves the next day Magnet throws a Sunflower seed bag that he stole from Mr.Sir to the others. ZigZag throws it to Stanley and it spills all over Stanleys hole. Stanley sees Mr.Sir coming back and tries to cover it up but Mr.Sir finds them under his dirt. Stanley takes the blame for the others and said he stole them.
Mr.Sir takes Stanley to the Warden and tells her what he did but says that he doesnt think he did it alone and hes just covering for the others. The Warden tells Stanley to grab a white case with pink flowers from her washroom and bring it back. Stanley gives her the case and she opens it up and pulls out a case of red nail polish. She applies it to her fingernails and tells Stanley its made with Yellow Spotted Lizard Venom and its homemade. She says its only poisonous when wet and then strokes it her wet names slowly down Stanley's face. Stanley face feels tingly then the Warden turns around and claws her wet nails across Mr.Sirs face. It leaves a huge scar across his face and he starts yelling then falls to the floor. Stanley asks if he will live and the Warden says that he will then tells Stanley to leave.
Stanley walks back to his hole. While walking back Stanleys thinks about his grandfather and how his father told him that when he had all his money stolen that he lived in the desert for 17 days until he was found. He said that he only survived because of "Gods thumb" and nobody, not even himself knew what he meant. When Stanley makes it back to his hole he sees that Zero has already dug Stanley's hole for him. Stanley asks Zero why he dug for him and Zero says "You didnt steal the sunflower seeds... and you didnt steal the shoes". When Stanley is eating dinner that night he tells Zero that he can teach him to write a little bit since hes not as tired because he didnt have to dig. Stanley teaches him to say the alphabet and Zero makes a deal with him that if he teaches him how to write 5 capitals and 5 non-capitals a day until 56 and the last day 6 capitals and 6 non-capitals then he will dig for Stanley 1 hour a day. Stanley agrees but wonders how Zero is so good at math to know there are 56 letters when he didnt even know the alphabet. Zero tells him that he isnt dumb he just doesn't like answering peoples questions. later Stanley is trying to go to sleep but is thinking about what that gold tube could be and then realizes that he saw that shape at the Wardens house and that it is the top half of a lipstick tube. He wonders if the KB could stand for Kate Barlow.
110 Years ago Camp Green Lake was the biggest lake in Texas and in spring there were peach trees that grew around the lake. There was a town around the lake and each year at spring the would hold a contest for best spiced peaches and every year a lady called Katherine Barlow would win. She was the only Teacher in the town and she owned a run down school house. She taught kids during the day and at the night she would teach adults. One of her students a rich man called Charles "Trout" Walker wanted to marry Katherine. He owned almost all of the peach trees that grew around the lake and everyone thought she would marry him. But Katherine wasnt interested. There was a black man called Sam who sold onions in the town with his donkey Mary Lou. Katherine would buy onions from him and one day she looked sad. Sam asked her why and she said because it was going to rain and that would mean that the roof in the school house would leak. Sam made a deal with her he said that he would fix it for 6 jars of her spiced peaches. Katherine agreed and while fixing the roof they would have conversation and became good friends. She got him to fix other things until everything in the school was fixed. Katherine was sad that everything was fixed because she had grown to love Sam. One day when he was selling Onions she started crying and told Sam that her heart was breaking. Sam said "I can fix that" they then kissed. Someone saw the kissing and told everyone in town. It was Illegal for a black man to kiss a white women. No kids went to school the next day and a mob led by Trout Walker burned down the school. Katherine went to the sheriff for help but he was drunk and told her that he was going to hang Sam and then asked for a kiss. Katherine slapped the sheriff then left to find Sam. when she found him she told him they were going to kill her and they had to leave now. They had to leave Mary Lou behind because they left on boat and she was too big. They got far but Trout caught up and shot Sam in the head then took Katherine back to the town where she saw Mary Lou dead. To this day it hadnt rained in Camp Green Lake for 110 Years. Three days later Katherine shot the sheriff in the head and became Kissing Kate Barlow.
After 20 years Kissing Kate Barlow returned to the dried up Camp Green Lake. she took shelter in a cabin with 2 palm trees in front of it. She stayed in the cabin for 3 months and one morning she woke up to someone breaking down the door. It was Trout Walker and he was point a rifle right at Kate. Trout was with a girl that had red hair and was one of Kate's students when she was teaching, her name was Linda. She married Trout for his money but he no longer was rich so they were searching for Kate so they could take her fortune. Kate buried it all in the sand far away and refused to tell them where she left it. They made her walk for days with a gun pointed to her head until they found it she would be their prisoner. Until a Yellow Spotted Lizard bit her leg and she died laughing.
Stanley wakes up the next morning and goes to eat breakfast with the others. Stanley sees Mr.Sir for the first time since yesterday and his face has 3 big claw marks across his face. A kid from a different tent then Stanleys comments on Mr.Sirs face asking what happened. Mr.Sir grabs him by his collar and throws him. The kid hits his head on a table and is knocked out. Later when Stanley is digging his hole the water truck comes and everyone lines up. When its Stanley's turn to get water he notices its Mr.Sir and he grabs Stanleys canteen and puts the water hose slightly to the right of the canteen and pours the water onto the ground teasing Stanley. 3 Days pass and Mr.Sirs scar was mostly going away but he still wasnt filling Stanleys canteen but lucky for Stanley Mr.Pendanski would fill it more often and was aware what Mr.Sir was doing so would let Stanley drink a little then top it off. Zero was also taking a lot of work off of Stanley because he was helping dig. Although the other Campers didnt like that Stanley wasnt doing all his digging Stanley didnt care. Stanley knowing that Mr.Sir might come kept his canteen half full just in case. Mr.Sir did come but he filled Stanleys canteen then took it behind the truck and came back a few minutes later. Stanley was scared that Mr.Sir put something in it so he dumped out the water into the ground. Stanley finished his hole then taught Zero the last letters of the alphabet and then taught him how to spell his name. Zero tells Stanley his real name is Hector Zeroni.
The weather at Camp Green Lake had gotten hotter and when Stanley was digging his hole the next day there was a lightning storm in the mountains to the west. A flash of Lightning revealed a mountain that Stanley thought looked like a fist with a finger pointed out the top like a thumbs up. Could it be "God's Thumb"? The next day Stanley woke up and went to breakfast. ZigZag said it was his birthday and today was July 8th. Stanley had been there 46 days and dug 44 holes. ZigZag acted as royalty cutting in line, acting better than others, ect. Mr.Sir even gave him a extra juice carton. Stanley started his 45th hole and Mr.Sir gave him water this time. Later after getting their 2nd water fill for the day the other campmates were picking on Stanley and pushing him telling him that its not right that he doesnt dig his entire hole. Mr.Pendanski finished giving Zero water and came over to tell Stanley to fight back and not let them bully him. Stanley threw a punch at ZigZag and was thrown to the ground by him and beaten up. Zero grabbed ZigZag and started to strangle him then Mr.Pendanski shot his gun in the air and Zero let go. Mr.Sir and the Warden came running. The boys told them what happend and said they got mad because Zero was digging part of Stanleys holes. The Warden got mad and told Stanley and Zero no more teaching Zero to write or Digging Stanleys holes. Mr.Pendanski and The Warden picked on Zero saying how dumb he was he couldnt even spell fat, cat, or hat. Zero got fat and cat right but hat wrong and they called him dumb. Mr.Pendanski handed him a shovel and said "go dig your hole" Zero said "Im not digging holes... I hate digging holes." Zero took the shovel and hit Mr.Pendanski over the head with it. The Warden and Mr.Sir drew their guns and Zero backed up they helped Mr.Pendanski up. Stanley looked over to see if Zero had his water canteen but he didnt. Stanley looked back and Zero was gone.
Things got darker in these Chapters and there was a lot of back story which I found interesting. Chapter 30 was also the Climax. Cant wait to see what happens next and where Zero goes from here especially without water how will he survive and what will Stanley do.
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