Summary

The story opens with Cody, a boy of about ten years old, riding a bike through his neighborhood. As he passes houses, he thinks angrily of their respective residents, recalling times when those neighbors had said mean things to him. One of the neighbors “had once called the cops when [Cody had] hit her cat with a lug nut on a string” (127). Cody fantasizes of one day inventing a shrink ray and using it on the neighbors’ and their houses. He would then flush the neighbors and their houses down a toilet. He passes the home of the Dalmeyer family and remembers that the Dalmeyer had screamed at him the other day not to touch their things. Cody does not think their verbal abuse was warranted, despite the fact that he had indeed destroyed some of their sporting...