Last time, relationship problems resolved with a questionable advice. Now, exposition.

15
2:42 P.M.
DEAD ZONE

Dess observes a house remarkable for the coordinates of its location, though Dess doesn’t elaborate what exactly is remarkable about them just yet. Instead, she thinks about different number bases since apparently she managed to locate the house using base 60 calculations.“Back in advanced algebra the year before, Mr. Sanchez had taught them how to convert into base two (turning regu­lar numbers into ones and zeros), all the while claiming that this knowledge was going to get them computer jobs one day. Yeah, right. A few more machines in the Bixby High com­puter lab might’ve helped more.”

It would if you were to find a time machine and go a few decades back, when we still used perfocards for programming. Nowdays the skill is about as relevant as an ability to spot literal bugs in your computer (which was actually a problem back in the day, the slang use of the term comes from it).

“After mastering binary (which had taken about 256 seconds), Dess had tackled base sixty because there were sixty seconds in aminute, sixty minutes in an hour. So Dess had it down cold that, for example, 2:31 A.M. was 9,060 seconds after midnight.”

That’s rather remarkably unrelated to base 60 calculations, since the result is presented in base 10 and can be rather easily obtained by just multiplying 2 by 120 and 31 by 60 (or splitting 31 into 30 and 1, multiplying each) and adding all numbers together. Seems to be more easy than base conversion.

Anyway, the gist of it is that working with coordinates is apparently easier in base 60, so Dess was able to crack the pattern and find this house. She briefly wonders who would live there, suspecting darkling cultists, but feels better when she sees a thirteen-points star plaque promising protection from darklings.

“The star was a good sign. She couldn’t imagine darkling groupies leaving a tridecagram stuck onto their house.”

Actually, it’s easy to imagine. Even if they work with darklings, it doesn’t mean they trust darklings completely, especially in their own home. Getting some protection in case there are any troubles makes sense.

Dess then notices deep gouges in a nearby tree that could be left only by a darkling. From there, it’s easy to guess that the house is the same Jessica was running around back in the previous book.

The sight spooks Dess into elaborating on her discovery: there are dead zones in Bixby where Melissa’s power doesn’t work. They may or may not other properties, it’s not said. The house is located in one of those dead zones, right in the middle.

Dess decides it’s her discovery to make and goes to the house. Before she can knock, she is greeted by an old woman who invites her in.

‘Come in,’ she said. ‘It’s taken you long enough.’

16
2:54 P.M.
AFTER-SCHOOL SPECIAL

We join Melissa at the end of a school day. She is glad that the noise in her head disappears with students going out of the school. Apparently, she has a little ritual of listening to music at the end of each school day, though this time it’s interrupted by a teacher telling her she shouldn’t play music in class.

” ‘Certainly, Mr. Rogers,’ she said pleasantly. ‘Do you happen to live in Bixby?’

‘What? Yes, over by the Dr. Pepper plant. Why do you ask?’

‘Nothing. Just curious.’

She smiled. Mr. Rogers lived close enough to visit, one of these nights during the midnight hour.”

Lovely. Outside of that, though, she is unusually cheerful. Apparently, touching Rex helped her tolerate the daily noise

Speaking of Rex, she goes to see him at a stadium where they agreed to meet to watch Constanza (she’s a cheerleader). Rex is late, so Melissa waits and gets a flashback to when she was examining Angie’s mind, remembering seeing something big that was obscured at the time due to the abomination arriving. Apparently, Angie and her people want to build a huge road ending somewhere in badlands without any landmarks around. The purpose of the road is unclear, but it does make for a nice image.

Rex arrives and they decide to wait for Constanza at a parking lot since Melissa can’t get anything out of her with other cheerleaders around. Melissa also decides to share the image of the road with Rex via touching, and is giggly about the prospect.

17
3:04 P.M.
MADELEINE

Back to Dess as she walks into the house and chats with the woman there. It quickly becomes obvious that the woman is one of the old time Midnighters who stayed hidden in the house for almost fifty years.

What follows is an expository conversation.. I’m going to note the interesting points:

– Woman’s name is Madeleine, as you have probably guessed from the chapter title.

– She’s a mindcaster like Melissa.

– The house is not a dead zone but “crepuscular contortion.” While it blocks mindcasting from the outside, Madeleine has no trouble mindcasting herself.

– Which she did to place images of coordinate patterns into Dess’ dreams to lead her there. She herself has a map of this stuff from the old times

– She doesn’t leave the house much and then only in disguise. Nowdays she only leaves it when Melissa is at school, since she would notice Madeleine otherwise.

– She knows all current Midnighters by name and apparently watched them all (or at least those who were born in Bixby) from birth.

– She blames everything going wrong on air-conditioning and television. I’m serious.

“A cool and invisible finger traced Dess’s spine. ‘When they came and got everyone?’

The old woman lifted an eyebrow. ‘Oh, no, not that. I’m talking about air-conditioning.’

‘Huh?’

‘In the summer of 1949, I had just turned eleven. We played all day until it grew dark, which in summer was very late.Young children and teenagers together, while the adults sat on the porches, visiting. Everything was in the open, everyone could see each other.’ Madeleine drew her arms around her shoulders. ‘But then one evening we were playing, and we looked
up and all the adults had vanished.’

Dess swallowed. ‘Darkhngs?’

‘No.’ The old woman shook her head sadly. ‘Air-condi­tioning. It was the first really hot night that summer, and they’dall gone inside, shutting up the doors just as tight as they could. Instead of
our parents and neighbors, all that remained to watch us was a faint blue glow coming from the windows.’

‘A blue glow? Like midnight?’

‘No. Television.’

‘What?

‘Try to pay attention, dear,’ Madeleine snapped. ‘That summer, all that oil-boom money had been spent on air con­ditioners and televisions. It was the beginning of the end.’

Dess cleared her throat. ‘Hang on – you’re saying you lost to the darklings because of air-conditioning?’

Madeleine lifted a finger sternly. ‘And television. You can’t discount television. You see, Dess, after that firstevening the adults stayed inside, watching Mr. Jack Benny instead of looking
after our childish games.’ She raised her eyes and looked directly into Dess’s, a thin smile on her lips. ‘The games changed that summer. Certain children had always wanted to play a different kind of game. Do you know the kind I mean?’

Dess swallowed. For a moment Madeleine’s face had looked exacdy like Melissa’s, changing the way hers did when the silence of midnight descended, suddenly cool and remote.

‘Urn, I don’t think so.’

‘I think you do. The games certain children enjoyed were of cruelty and dominance and, most importandy exclusion. Now they had their chance.’”

Well, it’s amusing, I give the book that. The joke with Dess trying to get the discussion back to darklings is a bit overdone, though.

Now, as to what happened to all of the old Midnighters. Apparently, one Midnighter kid revealed the secret to three other kids during one of the games away from parents. Those kids decided to start a game of their own, that of contacting darklings. Each night they tried to communicate with the darklings using the lore symbols, though they were unsuccessful. So, one night they brought a young seer girl with them and gave her to the darklings. Her name is Anathea, and  she is the one inside the abomination. The trio was paid with oil, which darklings can sense, and became rich. Darklings also tell them where not to drill, preserving their hiding spots, so a sort of partnership was established.

Then the trio came to Bixby during daylight hours with hired help and basically killed all Midnighters and their closest allies. Some escaped, hiding in that house since it’s the safest place during the secret hour, but Madeleine is the last one alive out of that group.

Well, the story is not very impressive. Three random kids just deciding to hang out with darklings sets them up as villains all right, but without us knowing them, the story doesn’t actually leave much of an impression. It’s just an explanation of what happened rather than a revelation of something hidden.

I actually do know that’s only half of the truth, but hinting at it would be nice.

Anyway, at this point the conversation draws to a close. Dess asks why Madeleine led her there.

‘Because I’m tired of hiding.’ Madeleine took a sip of her tea. ‘And I have also become quite sure that without my help, none of you shall survive.’

Tune in next time for Constanza.