How It All Goes Down
It Takes a Lifetime to Learn How to Die
- Chewing food for Mrs. Gurgle, who has no teeth, Daphne starts hearing voices like Mau does.
- They don't TALK LIKE THIS; they're much quieter. And they want her to bring Mau to the Women's Place.
- Mau seems to have succumbed to exhaustion and gone cold and comatose. Dude, Daphne asks, what happened?
- With the skill of some of the world's best storytellers (think Garrison Keillor, David Sedaris, and LeVar Burton), Pilu tells the story of Mau and the shark. Sorry, Mau: unfortunately he leaves in the part where Mau pees himself.
- Actually, this works out for Mau, because now people realize that he's not a demon but actually a human.
- Unfortunate thing about humans: they die. And Mau is rapidly doing just that.
- Cahle says the Sky Woman, a woman of great power, can help. Who is this woman? Why, the toothless Mrs. Gurgle, of course!
- She prepares a concoction that will kill Daphne. No, no, it's totally cool. Daphne will only die for a second, and during that time she can rescue Mau from Locaha.
- At the end of the chapter, we visit Mau in the Dark Current, the space between life and death. He's trying to outrun Locaha.
- This is one game of tag that you do not want to lose.
- Daphne appears to save him, but Mau is slowing down. She shouts out a funeral prayer.
- We practically rip the page trying to get to the next chapter to see what happens next.