Chapters 17 and 18 Summary

After dinner on Friday, Mike goes for a walk to think. Heading north, he is overcome by a perception of a drowning Negro boy, feeling his panic, and the end of his life at the hands of another. Mike holds onto a birch, gasping for air as Max and Rogette come up on him from behind. Taunting and using language more suited to a gutter, they keep him from climbing the bank and going home. When he tries, he is assaulted, first by one and then the other. Max hits him with his cane and uses his wheelchair to push him down into the lake where Rogette begins throwing fist sized rocks. Her aim is deadly accurate and she connects with his head several times, causing him to swallow large amounts of lake water, almost blacking out in the process. Every...