Chapter 229-233

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• About Chapter 229-232

The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime

Chapter 229

That night, Christopher dreams a virus has killed nearly everyone on Earth. A person can catch the virus just by looking at someone that has it, even if the infected person is on television. The virus spreads very quickly until the only people left on Earth are people like Christopher who do not look at other people’s faces. In the dream, he can go anywhere he likes without fear of someone touching him or asking him questions. 

Chapter 229

He can drive, and if he bumps into things it doesn’t matter. At the end of the dream he goes home to Father’s house in Swindon, only Father is gone. He makes himself Gobi Aloo Sag with red food coloring, watches a video about the solar system, plays computer games, and goes to bed. When he awakes from the dream he feels happy.

Chapter 233

Christopher awakens at Mother’s apartment. While he eats breakfast, Mr. Shears and Mother argue over how long Christopher can stay. Mother takes leave from work to care for Christopher. She takes him shopping for items he needs, such as pajamas, but she has to take Christopher home when he becomes frightened in a store. Christopher tells Mother he must return to Swindon to take his A-level math test, but Mother says she doesn’t know if that’s possible. That night, Christopher can’t sleep, so around 2 a.m. he goes out into the street and takes a walk. Mother comes out of the apartment shouting his name, scared that he has run away. She finds him and makes him promise never to leave the flat on his own again.

Chapter 233

A few days later, Mother is fired from her job for taking leave. Christopher demands to be taken to Swindon to take his A-level test. Mother insists the test can be postponed. The next morning, Christopher tries to forecast the day by looking out the dining-room window. He sees five red cars in a row followed by four yellow cars in a row, invalidating his system. Mother takes him to watch the planes take off and land from Heathrow airport. She says she has phoned Mrs. Gascoyne to postpone his A-level test till next year. Christopher screams at the news.

Chapter 233

Every night Mother and Mr. Shears argue. Christopher takes the little radio from the kitchen and leaves the tuner between stations so that the white noise drowns out their arguing and keeps him from thinking about the A-level test. One night Mr. Shears comes into the spare room and wakes Christopher up. Christopher can tell that Mr. Shears has been drinking. Mr. Shears accuses him of not caring about the people around him. Mother pulls Mr. Shears out of the room before he can say anymore.

Chapter 233

The next morning, Mother and Christopher leave for Swindon, taking Mr. Shears’s car. Mother explains that if they stayed in London any longer someone would get hurt. In Swindon, they go to Father’s house. Christopher plays Minesweeper in his room. He hears Father arrive home from work, so he pushes his bed up against his bedroom door to prevent Father from entering. Mother and Father argue in the living room. Father leaves to stay with Rhodri for a few weeks. Christopher again begs to take his A-level test, but Mother has already postponed it.

Chapter 233

Christopher compares the feeling he gets at hearing this to holding your thumb against a hot radiator. That night, he does not eat and has trouble sleeping.

The next day, Mother takes Christopher to school. Siobhan tells Christopher that Mrs. Gayscone still has his A-level test sealed on her desk, and that they are going to try to get Reverend Peters to come over so Christopher can take his test after all. Christopher feels excited but also tired from not sleeping the night before. That afternoon, Christopher begins his first section of the exam. He reads through it and has trouble thinking of the answers. 

Chapter 233

He feels so frustrated that he wants to stab someone with his Swiss Army knife, but he counts prime numbers in his head to relax. Then he rushes to complete the test. That night, Father comes to the house again, so Christopher hides in the garden until Father leaves.

The next day, Christopher takes part two of the exam. That evening, Mr. Shears throws a large box of Mother’s belongings on the lawn, then gets in his car and drives away.

Chapter 233

Christopher finishes the exam the following day. Father comes to the house that night and asks Christopher how the exam went. Christopher doesn’t answer until Mother prods him to. The following week, Father asks Mother to move out. She gets a job at a garden center and a doctor prescribes her medication for her depression. She and Christopher move into a room in a brick house that Christopher doesn’t like for many reasons, primarily that the bed is in the kitchen and that they share the toilet with strangers. 

Chapter 233

He has to stay at Father’s house after school each day because Mother doesn’t get off work until 5:30 p.m. Christopher locks himself in his room so that Father can’t get in, and sometimes Father talks to him through the door but Christopher doesn’t answer. Toby dies of old age at two years and seven months. Christopher buries him in the soil in a plastic pot for plants because Mother’s house doesn’t have a garden.

Chapter 233

One day after school Father sits Christopher down. Father says Christopher’s trust is more important to him than anything else. To start rebuilding that trust, Father gives Christopher a two-month-old golden retriever. Christopher names her Sandy. The puppy has to stay at Father’s house because there isn’t enough space in the one-room apartment Christopher shares with Mother, but Christopher can visit whenever he wants. The next week, Christopher learns he got an A on his A-level math test. 

Chapter 233

He spends some nights in Father’s house and feels okay with Sandy sleeping on the bed. He plants a vegetable patch in the garden with Father. He buys a book to study his next set of A-level tests.

Chapter 233

Christopher sets out a series of goals for the future: to get A grades in A-level Further Math and A-level Physics, so that he can attend university in another town, where he will live in a flat with a garden and a proper toilet with Sandy, his books, and his computer. He will graduate with a first-class honor degree and become a scientist. He knows that he can do all of these things because he went to London on his own, solved the mystery of who killed Wellington, found his mother, and wrote a book. And that means he can do anything.