Summary

Chapter 45 tracks the characters that Christopher touched with his burning fingers. They each are plagued with an ‘itch’ that they cannot identify. Mrs. Collins forces Brady to live in a dog-house as punishment for fighting at school. He envisions ways to make Eddie and Christopher pay for making his mother hate him. Jenny Hertzog, afraid of her abusive stepbrother, steals a knife from the kitchen and hides it under her pillow.

Matt's lazy eye is miraculously cured. Mike cannot sleep and watches the movie Avengers, but halfway through, Thor starts talking directly to him, insisting that he has to prepare for a war against good and evil.

Ms. Lasko can no longer get inebriated no matter how much alcohol she consumes. And Mrs. Henderson sits in her kitchen, scratching the itch on her arm and grieving her failed marriage.

Chapter 46 begins on the...