Max the Mighty

Matt runs toward the screams. Standing in the street is a gang-banger who taunts a skinny, red-haired girl with her own backpack, which he’s just stolen from her. She yells, “Give it back!” (4). Max tells the gang-banger to leave the girl alone. He tries to retrieve the backpack, but the gang-banger darts away, grinning as he insults Max with names like “Pig boy” and “Moron Max” and chants at the girl, “Bookworm, bookworm, ugly little bookworm” (5).

The boy roots around in her bag, tossing paperbacks aside, until he finds a miner’s helmet with a light. He puts it on. She tries to grab it back, but he ducks away. Max reaches down and plucks the helmet from the kid, who tries to threaten Max but thinks better of it and saunters off.

Max gives the helmet to the girl. She hugs it. He asks what it’s for, but she says, “None of your business,” and runs off (7).

Max goes home to his grandparents’ house, where he lives in a basement bedroom filled with books and games and other stuff. He calls it “Down Under” and prefers it to the upstairs bedroom his Gran wishes he’d use. He lies on his bed and worries about the gang-bangers who will now be after him. He also wonders why the helmet is so precious to the girl.

His grandparents—the parents of his dead mother—are “old and out of it” (9), but they’re good to him. His grandfather, Grim, is still surprised that Max went from barely able to read to an avid reader, but he seems proud of the boy.

On the bus home after a class field trip, Max watches as Worm, her head in a book, stands up at her stop and exits while still reading. She ignores chants of “Bookworm, bookworm” and avoids Max. He stares at her as she walks down the street. The other kids taunt him: “Max and Bookworm sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” (11). Max knows they’re wrong: He doesn’t care about her. Not one bit.

On a beautiful Saturday, Max visits the park, where he sits on a bench near the pond. He tosses pebbles into the water and gazes at the light glinting off it. Suddenly Worm sits down next to him and asks if he’s “Freak the Mighty” (13). Max says Freak the Mighty was two people, himself and Kevin Avery, a genius kid with an illness that kept him from growing. They had lots of adventures together, and Kevin helped him learn how to think and read.

She asks what happened to Kevin. Max says, “He died.” She says that’s crummy. Then she says, “So […] now you’re Max the Mighty” (13-14). This makes him feel weird. He says no, he’s just Max.

A woman sitting nearby calls out, “Rachel! Leave the nice man alone!” (14). Worm says it’s OK, that Max is from school. The woman, Worm’s mother, wears an old-fashioned black dress and looks like an older version of Worm. She walks over rather stiffly and apologizes for her daughter. Max notices bruises under her eyes and sadness in her voice.

Worm says the pond reminds her of the book The Wind in the Willows, with Mole and Badger and Rat in their rowboat and Mr. Toad putting on airs. She pulls a ragged copy of the book from her backpack. Max says he only knows the animated film version. Worm says there’s no TV at her house because her stepfather hates television.

An old, rusty Cadillac hearse rolls up. From it emerges a tall, slender man dressed in black, like an undertaker sent to fetch them.

Max has seen this “Undertaker” around town, preaching angrily and begging for money. He marches toward them and accuses them of trying to run away from him. Worm and her mom hunker down and quietly endure the scolding. The Undertaker orders his stepdaughter to get away from Max, then stands before the boy and demands to know what they’ve been talking about. Max stands up and towers over the Undertaker, but Worm’s mom suddenly concedes and agrees to go to the car.

She and Worm head for the vehicle, but Worm runs back to Max. She says, “Don’t forget,” and then returns to the car. It speeds off in a squeal of tires. Max realizes that Worm put something in his coat pocket.

Max pulls from his pocket Worm’s copy of The Wind in the Willows. Inside is her name and address. He supposes she wants him to bring the book to her house and, in the process, save her from her stepfather, like some sort of Superman. There’s no way he wants to do that.

Her address is in a poor part of town. Max walks there. As he nears their basement apartment, he hears Worm’s mom and stepdad shouting. She sounds scared, and he sounds cruel. He hits her and knocks her out. Max breaks down the door and enters. The Undertaker is trying to pull his inert wife away from Worm’s bedroom door. Max pushes past him and enters the bedroom. Inside, Worm wears her helmet and reads a book, trying to ignore the violence. Max scoops her up and brings her from the bedroom.

The Undertaker runs at him but stops. “‘She’s mine!’ he screams. ‘Give her to me!’” Worm’s mother regains consciousness and says, “You’ve got to get her away from here. Please. Take her away!” (26).

Max takes her away.