Summary
“The Search”
Tom is adjusting to life without William but misses him greatly. He feels anxious that he has not yet received a letter from the boy. Tom goes to see Mrs. Fletcher to inform her that there is a telegram for Annie Hartridge. He is worried that it might be news of the death of her husband, David. He knows that Mrs. Fletcher has recently experienced the death of her son, Michael, so he suggests that she accompany Mrs. Hartridge to comfort her.
On Friday, Tom heads to London along with Sammy. He is astonished by the amount of people and noise on the train platform in the city. He goes to Deptford, where Willie is from, and doesn’t arrive until midnight. He observes that the area is very poor. A siren goes off and creates a chaotic scene. A kindly warden guides Tom to the nearest bomb shelter. In the shelter, Tom tells the warden about Willie, and the warden is surprised that he is so concerned about the boy. He tells Tom that most of the evacuees escape the countryside and return back to London.
Tom tells the warden the name and address of Willie, and the warden remembers him. He is supposed to keep track of everyone in town, and he was unaware that Willie had come back from the countryside. He has not seen Willie since before he left for Weirwold. A neighbor of the Beeches approaches them and shares that she has heard strange noises coming from the Beech’s house. The neighbor offers to bring Mr. Oakley and the warden to their home once they are able to leave the bomb shelter. The neighbor tells them that Mrs. Beech is away for the weekend.
Willie’s home appears to be deserted. However, Tom’s dog Sammy becomes excited while they are standing outside, indicating that Willie is inside. Tom knocks on the door but no one answers. Together with the warden and a police officer, Tom breaks the front door down. Once inside the house, they are met with an awful smell. Sammy runs to the stairwell and begins barking loudly.
“Rescue”
The men open the door of the stairwell to find Willie sitting in his own urine and excrement, holding the baby and tied to copper piping. He is covered with sores. The baby is dead. Tom insists on speaking to him first and helps untie him. Willie insists on being called Will.
Tom accompanies Will on an ambulance to the hospital. There, the doctor questions if Tom is a relative or not. The nurse takes Will and demands that Tom stay behind. Tom wants to wait for him, but the warden insists on getting a cup of tea. Over tea, the warden, Sid, questions what Tom will do next and Tom replies that he will take the boy back. Sid doubts him, saying that they will probably send Will to a children’s home.
Tom waits in the lobby until the next afternoon. A nurse approaches him and informs Tom that Will is under “deep psychological shock” and that they are sedating him so he doesn’t scream and disturb the other children. Tom is able to see Will, who is better, but very thin and bruised. Tom is forced by the hospital staff to leave Will’s room, much against both of their wishes. Tom questions the authority of the staff to force him to leave.
Mr. Stelton, a man from the children’s home, approaches Tom. He is spacey and subdued in his personality. Tom has difficulty in getting Mr. Stelton to say what he means. Finally, he tells Tom that he thinks the children’s home would be helpful to Will’s recovery. Tom tells him that he would like to take care of the boy, but Mr. Stelton insists that he is not a relative and can’t. After their discussion, Tom feels saddened and unsure of how he can get Will to live with him.
Tom goes outside to Sammy and asks his wife Rachel what she would do in this situation. She responds in Tom’s imagination by saying he should kidnap Will. Meanwhile, Tom helps out with casualties who are being brought to the hospital. That night, he decides to follow Rachel’s advice and to kidnap Will. He sneaks into the room and successfully takes the boy. The next morning, Tom, Will, and Sammy get on a train with Will and Sammy to a village called Skyron. They hitch rides and walk the rest of the way to Weirwold.
Will wakes up and hears Tom singing and sees a starry night sky. Tom has brought him to the Little household to be checked on by Dr. Little, who says the boy looks fine. Tom tells the Dr. and Mrs. Little his story and says that although he knew he broke the rules, he believes what he did was the right thing for Will. Mrs. Little assures Tom that it is likely that the people in London are too busy to track Will down now. Zach runs in and is delighted to see Will. Tom sits in an armchair and falls asleep immediately.
Analysis
The chapters “The Search” and “Rescue” mark a pivotal moment of the book. Magorian builds the tension in the plot when we learn that Will has been away for weeks without any communication with Tom or anyone in Weirwold. Tom is characterized in these chapters to be a man of great integrity and courage. It is no easy feat to leave the known of Weirwold and venture into the huge city, but Mr. Oakley is determined to find the boy who he has grown to love as a son.
The gap between communal, country life and the urban environment is emphasized in these chapters. When Tom first arrives in London and is speaking with the ticket man, there is a stark difference between the men’s accents, which causes Tom to be ridiculed. The ticket man insists that Tom’s dog should be muzzled. The neighborhood of Will is run-down and poor. Still, Tom manages to find kind strangers, such as the warden, who are happy to help him. In the hospital, Tom pitches in to assist the ambulances deliver casualties. The spirit of community remains, even in such chaotic circumstances. Still, Tom does not like the impersonal treatment of Willie at the hospital, such as the way that the nurses use drugs to sedate his trauma.
The interaction between Tom and Mr. Stelton is particularly interesting. Mr. Stelton is spacey and almost incapable of articulating what he means. Tom, on the other hand, lacks pretenses and comes off as very direct when discussing Will. The contrast of these two characters speaks to a larger contrast between the two types of life they represent: that of small town life and the other of the city and its institutional systems.
Tom chooses to break the rules of the hospital by kidnapping Will, based on advice given through the spirit of his wife, Rachel. This choice exemplifies how oftentimes, we are faced with challenges that require decisive action based on a moral understanding of life. Tom knows it is the right thing to do to take Willie, rather than allowing him to be put in the children’s home. Tom rejects the relative authority of the hospital and its rules, understanding that Weirwold will be a much safer place for the boy.
Tom recognizes that after abuse and trauma, the best medicine is love and community rather than treatment from a lifeless, impersonal system. Through this part of the plot, Magorian shows us how often those things that are meant to help the downtrodden—such as psychiatry or Biblical scripture—can do more harm than good when there isn’t a sense of love as the basis. The contradiction between what is practiced and what is preached is one that is echoed throughout the book. There is great irony, for instance, in how an abusive person like Will’s mother can be exhorting Christian principles while forgetting a very essential component of religion: compassion for others.
In this part of the book, Magorian highlights the importance of intuitive and dream messages. For instance, Tom is initially spurred to go find Will after having a nightmare of being locked in a tight space, with Will asking him for help. The parallel of this nightmare to the reality of Will’s situation shows both the power of dreams and the connection that Tom and Will have even when physically separated. Tom also receives guidance from Rachel, even though she is not physically present. These more subtle and psychic influences play an important role in the major climactic action of the book.
