The+Compound+-+Chapter+16

    Chapter 16  Allusions and other References All Excerpts From: S. A. Bodeen. “The Compound.”

scavenger hunt “So that’s it. Turducken must be the clue. Mom let out a breath. “That wasn’t all. The first time he told me about it, he was still nice. He acted like it was just __matter-of-fact__, a little __scavenger hunt__. Then, later, when he started to get mean …”//“Mom?” “I was afraid he would go back on his word. But then he laughed, said he would leave the clue, even though he didn’t think any of us would be able to figure it out.”//

glazed over  “Just in case. In case it came to that for some reason.” Dad’s eyes had been clear, but then they seemed to __glaze over__. He recited part of a poem.

//… In this last of meeting places// //We grope together// //And avoid speech// //Gathered on this beach of the tumid river …”//   <span style="display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px; text-align: left;">ergotism <span style="color: #e4be28; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px; text-align: left;"> “I read the definition aloud. “Poisoning by ingesting ergot-infected grains.” Her face registered confusion. She paled as she understood. “The flour.” <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;">rye <span style="color: #e4be28; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px; text-align: right;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px; text-align: left;">I scanned a bit more, trying to find out what I could. “There must have been some rye in it that was already infected with the ergot when it came into the Compound.” <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">sabotage <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;">“She looked at me. “Do you think his workers __planted__ the flour?” I didn’t know. “He wouldn’t have wanted us to get sick. I really believe that.” __Too ironic__, that he went to the trouble to have someone sabotage the food supply and he was __sabotaged__ himself by the flour.”

<span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">walking cliche' <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;">“Too much of it gives you cyanide poisoning.” Mom gasped. “But that’s deadly.”I nodded. “That’s the point.” Dad’s voice was weak. “Can’t survive a nuclear war without cyanide.” Among everything else, my dad turned out to be a __walking cliché__.”

<span style="color: #e4be28; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #e4be28; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px; text-align: center;">Vocabulary and Concepts <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|just in case] <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|migraines]  <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|overdoses]  <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|intravenous]  <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|gurney]  <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|passed out] <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|cure] <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|planted] <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|seizures]  <span style="color: #e4be28; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px;">[|heartburn]

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #e4be28; display: block; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 55px; text-align: center;">Literary Devices <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;"> “I tore the office apart looking for a switch, some way to get on the Internet, the phone, anything. But I kept coming up dry.

<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;"> I looked over at the door to the secret lab. I couldn’t imagine any Internet switch being there. I had to keep moving.”

<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;"> “Eight … two … nine …” He kept on with the numbers, so many they didn’t even begin to start sinking in. Like a phone number from hell.

<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;"> “Dad, please! Hold on, I can’t remember them all.”

<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;"> “That guy would probably sell his own internal organs for the right price.”

<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;"> “She shook her head. “And the vomiting and diarrhea. Although today may be the first time that’s happened.”

<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 35px;"> I frowned. “Those are symptoms for a million things. Let’s focus on the unique things.”