Freak the Mighty

After the fireworks show, Max gets thirsty and migrates toward the lemonade stand. Freak is so light on his shoulders that Max forgets for a moment that he’s there. Freak enjoys the tall perspective. He notices Blade and his gang approaching before Max does and warns him to head left, away from danger. Max has trouble with the words “left” and “right,” so Freak kicks his chest with his left foot, as with a horse. Max writes that “it’s lucky for me the little dude doesn’t have any spurs” (35).

They begin to run, Freak clicking his heels to guide Max. The gang outruns them and they’re surrounded. Freak finds a weak spot in their circle and directs Max, who bowls over one of the gang members. They run toward the millpond, Freak saying, “Trust me.” Blade is right behind, his knife swinging through the air. Max and Freak walk right into the pond. The muck at the bottom tugs at Max’s feet, but he sloshes forward until he’s chest-deep and Freak tugs back on his hair, crying, “Whoa! […] we did it” (37).

They turn and see Blade, his head above water, sputtering. Blade’s gang rescues him and they return to shore where they begin throwing rocks at Max and Freak. Max’s feet are stuck in the muck and he can’t move. Freak sees a patrol car cruising nearby, and he emits a loud, shrill whistle until the police shine a spotlight on them. Blade’s gang runs away. The police use a rope to pull Max and Freak from the pond. Onshore, people give them Cokes and blankets; they know about Blade and keep an eye out for his gang. 

One officer recognizes Max as the son of Kenny Kane, whom he calls “Killer Kane.” Freak cuts in: “We’re Freak the Mighty,” and he points out that, together, they’re “nine feet tall” (40). 

Back at the house, Grim hoses Max down while the police explain what happened. Grim looks stunned; Gram brings out a towel and fusses over him. Everyone thinks Max rescued Freak, but Max privately believes Freak saved him.

Inside, Gram gives him ice cream; Grim prepares a cup of coffee, serves it to the boy in their best china, and calls him “Max” instead of Maxwell. Max, discarding his usual sullenness, speaks politely and with respect, saying “please” and “thank you.” Grim and Gram fairly gush over him. Gram wants him to promise to stay away from Blade and his gang; Grim says Max can take care of himself. Max promises he’ll run from Blade, which Grim applauds as “evasive action.”

Normally, Max would spend the summer at home reading comics or watching TV and occasionally going shopping with Gram. This summer, though, things get better. Every morning, Freak bangs on Max’s stairway bulkhead, insisting they go out and have adventures. Freak calls Max a “lazy beast” and a “big ox”; one morning, Max calls Freak “Ants in the pants” for his nervous energy. Freak retorts that there are 2,247 subspecies of ants, “and none of them are in my pants” (44-45). Max bursts out laughing.

Freak likes to go on quests around town, as if they were two of King Arthur’s knights searching for dragons to slay. He explains that dragons are an “archetype” that represent fear of nature; Max doesn’t know what “archetype” means, so Freak pulls out a dictionary from his knapsack and makes Max look it up. Max struggles to read—R’s look like backwards E’s, for example, and he must think hard about each word—but he follows Freak’s instructions and locates “archetype.” The word has multiple definitions, and Max gets confused. Freak points to the second definition, “A universal symbol or idea in the psyche,” but Max still doesn’t get it (47). Freak gives up and says that dinosaurs had pea brains but ruled the Earth for millions of years.

Max and Freak venture out, Freak on Max’s shoulders, his feet tapping on the left or right for directions. Freak might describe a street crossing as a dangerous, vine-covered bridge where Max, a “mighty steed,” mustn’t look down but close his eyes and step forward carefully.

Freak uses a Cub Scout compass for directions, but he claims it’s actually an ancient heirloom handed down from Lancelot, through Gawain and the Black Knight, all the way to Freak. Max quips that the Black Knight was a Cub Scout, and Freak laughs.

They journey east for miles. At one point, they walk through a posh neighborhood; Freak points at houses, calling one “the Castle of Avarice” and another “the Bloated Moat” (49). Finally they reach a large building that houses the medical research wing of the local hospital. Freak calls it “the Fortress.” He makes Max swear a solemn oath—including spitting on his hand and pressing it to his heart—that he’ll never reveal the building’s secret purpose, to build bionics, or replacement parts for humans. Freak says he’ll be the first test subject. They’ll build an entire new body for him.

Freak goes to the Fortress every few months for extensive testing. Max realizes that Freak really believes they’re building him a robot body; it’s not one of his play fantasies. Max asks if it’ll hurt; Freak says yes, but “Pain is just a state of mind. You can think your way out of anything, even pain” (53). Max wonders if it will be dangerous and whether Freak must be the first. Freak replies, “Life is dangerous” (53). 

As the summer progresses, Grim notices that Max seems to be adding muscle. Grim says this is because Max carries Freak—Grim calls him “poor Kevin”—all over town all the time. Max says people shouldn’t pity Kevin, a kid who knows nearly all the words in the dictionary. Grim doesn’t believe Kevin knows that many words; frustrated, Max goes down to his basement and listens to thrash music.

Suddenly Freak is sitting next to Max on his bed. Max jumps back, startled. Freak says he teleported in, then admits that he simply climbed down the stairs while Max was distracted by the music. Freak wants to go on a quest, but Max says his feet are tired. Freak says the quest is nearby: It’s a treasure hunt, except Freak already knows where the treasure lies. It’s in the sewer.

They must wait until 3:00 a.m., the darkest moment of night, so they won’t be seen raiding the sewer. They also must wear black clothing.

Max tries to sleep but he keeps waiting for the alarm to go off. Meanwhile, a cricket in the room chirps and chirps. Finally he gives up and heads out at 2:30 for Freak’s house. Freak is already awake, wearing a Darth Vader cape and helmet—no mask—and he makes Max roll around in the dirt because his shirt and face are too bright.

Freak climbs out his window and onto Max’s shoulders. They set out through the dark and locate the storm drain. It smells like something died, maybe rats or worse. Max can’t budge the access grate, so Freak pulls out a flashlight and a paper clip attached to a kite string on a spool. Max unspools the clip down through the grate toward a mysterious object that Freak’s light illuminates. The clip grabs, and Max pulls the object upward. Freak grabs it: It’s a woman’s purse. Freak says he saw one of Blade’s gang members throw it into the drain the day before.

The purse contains a wallet with an ID card. The owner is someone named Loretta Lee. Freak says, “I’ll bet you anything she’s a damsel in distress” (62).