Summary
To Demon's happy surprise, he is taken to live with the coach of the Lee County Generals, a prominent local high school football team. He refers to him as "Coach." He meets Coach's daughter, whose name is Agnes but is called Angus by everyone. He initially assumes she is his son because of her tomboyish appearance. She shows him around the house. He is overwhelmed by his sudden change in circumstances, particularly his large, new home. Angus takes him shopping for new clothes and says her dad will pay for everything. He gets an entire wardrobe update, including brand-new sneakers.
He starts middle school and is happy to discover he is not a social reject anymore. Being Coach's adopted gives him a great deal of social credit. Demon quickly finds himself enjoying English class because of the teacher Mr. Armstrong. Demon describes Mr. Armstrong's openness to class opinions as well as his ability to be honest and persuasive during lessons. In a private conference he tells Demon that he is clearly very "resilient," meaning he has survived a great deal.
Around the same time, he also becomes increasingly close with Angus. They do everything together. She complains frequently about her female friends to him, feeling irritated about the dramas they get embroiled in. Demon gets a call from the Peggots and goes down to visit them. He tells them about his new life. He notices that Maggot has taken on a goth look. He and Emmy tell Demon about Aunt June's boyfriend who has been peddling pain medication all over the county. Demon also learns that Emmy has a boyfriend as well.
Christmastime comes around and Demon is worried he will wear out his welcome. While cleaning the gutters, he and Angus talk about Christmas. She tells him that since her mom died, they've never really done much for it. He tells her that that ought to change. They have a big Christmas celebration and she gives a ship in a bottle, symbolizing his ability to beat the odds and also his desire to see the ocean. He gives her a hat, some books, and a portrait he draws of her. Shortly after this, Coach tells him he has been eyeing him to play football. Demon is ecstatic.
Demon says he looks back on this time as the golden years, wishing he had appreciated it more for what it was. Being associated with the football team makes him incredibly popular. He begins taking art lessons with Mr. Armstrong's wife, Ms. Annie. She tells him he is a very gifted artist with a lot of potential. He develops a small crush on her. Demon's grandmother comes to visit to check up on him and see how he's doing. Coach tells him he wants him to be a tight end on the team. He says he would have preferred to be quarterback, but is nonetheless happy.
Demon goes to a homecoming dance and Angus becomes involved on an academic team. She wins some competitions, but the school shows little interest in putting up money for her to go to a more serious competition. Mr. Armstrong pushes for more funding, pointing out that the school doesn't support academics and puts all of its resources into football. Demon begins playing for the football team and enjoys it immensely. The assistant coach, nicknamed U-Haul, dislikes Demon and constantly looks for excuses to be critical of him. Later, Demon learns that June broke up with Kent after an explosive argument about painkillers. Emmy's boyfriend sleeps over two nights with a shotgun, concerned that Kent might show up at the house.
Demon falls for a girl named Dori and also starts hanging out with Fast Forward, who is still hanging around Lee County. He finds that most of his friends, including Maggot and Fast Forward, are tied up in drugs, either using or selling them. There is a party for the Fourth of July and everyone attends. Demon thinks he notices a spark between Fast Forward and Emmy. He runs into Dori at a drive-in movie and they talk briefly. He gets extremely drunk and Angus has to take care of him when he gets home. Demon suffers an injury on the field and is prescribed painkillers by Dr. Watts, a local physician. June visits him and gets into an argument with Coach, saying the medicine being prescribed to him is dangerous.
Analysis
Poverty is a major theme in this part of the book. Demon is shocked by his sudden change in circumstance. He thinks Coach's house is extremely large and he has to adjust to having new things. He takes note of the fact that his mother likely couldn't imagine owning a house like that one. He feels strange about all of this because he was not born into it, but was instead dropped into it by his grandmother. He appreciates the many things that living with Coach gives him but he is acutely aware of the role chance played in this turn of events. Likewise, he also remains insecure about them continuing to want him around the house, as he has been removed from other homes in the past. Similarly, as he takes a trip in the car with Angus, Demon passes several spots from his hitchhiking journey and remembers his desperation during that time. These moments reveal the permanent scars that Demon's hard life has left on him; while living with Coach is a bright spot, he is constantly aware of how much things can change and how quickly his comfortable situation can vanish.
Community is also an important theme in these chapters. Demon strikes up a very meaningful friendship with Angus. They exchange thoughtful gifts on Christmas, talk about everything from dates to friends, and spend a great deal of time together. After a particularly rough night, Angus expresses concern when she sees him partying too much, saying he needs to be more careful. Demon's bond with Angus is both close and healing, as she shows care for him in a way that is not selfish or conditional. She provides him with community in the most meaningful sense, as she loves him for exactly who he is and does her best to help him when she can. Her relationship with him reveals how essential this sort of relationship is to his well-being, and how sorely he has been missing it.
In a contrasting manner, Kingsolver also shows the detrimental side of community. Demon starts hanging out with Fast Forward, as he is popular for being a football player. He introduces him to the Peggots and also starts going to parties with him. Right away, Demon notices that Fast Forward appears to be entangled in illicit business, as he always seems to be picking packages up from his friends. He is told a hair-raising story by a girl who knew him in foster care about how he could convince anyone to do anything. Demon has his reservations, but remains close with Fast Forward, despite these warnings. This draws him in closer and closer proximity to partying, drugs, and alcohol. While Fast Forward is not the sole culprit of Demon's behavior, he exerts a negative influence on him. With these scenes, Kingsolver seems to show how friends can negatively impact the people around them, shaping who they hang out with and what they do.
Addiction is also a significant theme in this section. Demon hears about June's boyfriend Kent peddling painkillers for a pharmaceutical company. He learns that they break up because June feels he is essentially getting people addicted to these drugs to turn a profit. He does not make a connection between this and his injury, but he is prescribed these same drugs when is injured. June tries to dissuade Coach from letting Demon take this medication, but he is unmoved by her angry appeals. This, as Demon takes note, is the beginning of his spiral into addiction, as he becomes severely dependent on painkillers after this. This reveals the slippery slope that starts these characters down this road. As Demon notes, around this time people were being given these prescriptions liberally, with no real oversight and no warning of how dangerously addictive opioids could be.
This part of the book shows Demon's slip towards addiction. As he is surrounded by regular drug users and various individuals of questionable character, he struggles to stay out of trouble. This part of the book shows Demon teetering on the edge of real trouble, as he faces the dangerous consequences of running with a bad crowd. Likewise, it shows how Demon's narrative is part of a larger story of addiction set off by the opioid crisis.
