Summary

After the lunch meeting with Earl, Matt is supposed to go meet his unemployment counselor, Noreen. Matt knows that Noreen will just encourage him to take Earl’s extremely low-paying job offer, so he decided to go pay Chuck a visit at “the mystical land of lumber for a bit of recon behind enemy lines” (143). The chapter opens with a lengthy list of supplies (written in poetic verse) needed for building a treehouse. Chuck is printing off an invoice for the supplies Matt would need to build a treehouse.

Matt is feeling bitter and inferior to Chuck as he prints out the invoice, but finds a moment of solace when he notices Chuck has a bald spot. Matt rejoices about the imperfection and lets the reader know that he has a “luscious head of hair” (146). The invoice for the wood ends...