Chapter 7 (Six): Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Chapter 7 opens the morning after Frankie and Zeke first posted their poster around Coalfield. Convinced that no one else cares about the poster yet, the two make three hundred additional copies on the Xerox machine, treating the copier almost like a sacred object as it slowly produces each sheet. They then drive around town, trying to remember every location where they had posted one, gasping whenever they find a poster still in place. At the Creekside Market, Zeke buys a detailed map of Coalfield so they can mark each spot and keep an official record of where their posters remain.
At the movie theater, they find Jake, one of Frankie's brothers' friends, taking down a wall of posters. Jake explains that his boss called the police, but the police said they didn't care. Frankie plays innocent, asking to see one of the posters, and Jake gives them a copy. As they drive away, Zeke reflects that the police have no idea what the poster means, and Frankie replies that the authorities are "skinny with hunger" for them—a line that makes them both laugh nervously.
Frankie then leads Zeke to an abandoned house where teenagers gather at night to smoke and drink. The house is filthy, with broken glass, moldy furniture, and walls covered in graffiti. Frankie scratches out the name of a former friend that someone had defaced. Zeke asks if this is "the edge," and Frankie mumbles that maybe everywhere they are is the edge. They cover the living room walls with nearly two hundred copies of the poster, standing in the center of the room and turning slowly, feeling as though the whole world has become just the two of them and their creation. Frankie knows the posters will rot or be torn down, but she wants them to last forever so that she and Zeke could return years later and remember each other. Zeke rolls one poster into an empty rum bottle and drops it into a hole in the wall, hiding it inside the house.
Frankie tells Zeke she has to babysit that night, and they make a few more stops on the way home, marking the map with stars. The next morning, Frankie wakes from a dream in which the giant hands from the poster reach out for her, wiggling their fingers as if casting a spell. At breakfast, her mother notices she looks different—happy, even a little crazy—and asks if she will see Zeke. Frankie wants to confess everything about the poster, the obsession, her novel, her father, but she only says they will "hang out." She imagines kidnapping her half sister Frances someday and showing her the poster.
Zeke arrives, jittery, saying that Mr. Avery, Frankie's neighbor, was staring at him. Frankie explains that Mr. Avery is a sick former performance artist from Los Angeles who wears a haori because he is always cold. Zeke then proposes making a new poster featuring a wolf standing on a pile of bones, but Frankie insists that the original poster is the only one they should ever make—it is perfect, it has their blood on it, and making more designs would make it ordinary. Zeke finally agrees, saying "Only this," and they walk into the garage to make more copies.
Key Events
- Frankie and Zeke make three hundred additional copies of the poster and buy a map of Coalfield to track where posters remain.
- At the movie theater, Jake is taking down posters; his boss called the police, who said they didn't care.
- The two cover the living room walls of an abandoned house with nearly two hundred posters.
- Zeke hides a rolled poster in a bottle inside a hole in the wall of the house.
- Frankie dreams of the poster's giant hands reaching for her.
- Frankie's mother notices she looks happy and asks about Zeke; Frankie keeps the secret.
- Zeke reports that Mr. Avery stared at him; Frankie explains Mr. Avery's background as a sick former artist.
- Zeke proposes a new wolf poster, but Frankie insists the original is the only one they will make.
Character Development
Frankie deepens her obsession in this chapter. She treats the poster as something sacred and singular, refusing to let Zeke create a second design because she fears it would dilute the power of the first. Her desire for permanence is explicit: she wants the posters to survive so that she and Zeke can return to them years later. She also reveals more of her inner life—her complicated feelings about her absent father, her half sister Frances, and her own novel about a "bad girl." Her refusal to tell her mother anything shows how isolating the obsession has become.
Zeke remains the more restless of the two. He is eager to keep the project going but is open to changing it, sketching a wolf on a pile of bones. When Frankie pushes back, he ultimately agrees, showing that their partnership depends on Frankie's vision. His nervousness about Mr. Avery and his description of his own home life—his mother playing violin constantly, his grandmother wanting to play Uno—paint him as someone who is also seeking escape.
Mr. Avery is introduced as a mysterious neighbor. Frankie reveals that he was once a famous performance artist with pieces at MoMA and LACMA, but in Coalfield he is just a sick, sweet man who wears a haori and takes short walks. His presence hints at a larger world of art that Frankie does not yet fully understand.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Obsession and secrecy. The chapter is driven by Frankie and Zeke's compulsive need to multiply the poster while keeping it hidden from the adults around them. Frankie's inability to tell her mother anything about the poster shows how the obsession has become a private world.
Multiplication vs. singularity. Frankie wants the poster to multiply across the town, yet she insists that there be only one design. The tension between spreading the poster and preserving its uniqueness is central to her thinking.
The map and the constellation. The map of Coalfield, marked with stars for each poster location, becomes a symbol of the project's reach. Frankie feels overwhelmed by the unmarked space and wants the whole map to become a single constellation.
The edge, shantytown, and gold seekers. These phrases, introduced earlier, recur here. Frankie says that "everywhere we are is the edge," and she wants the edge, the shantytown, and the gold seekers to be real. The abandoned house is the physical embodiment of the edge—a place where teenagers go to escape consequences.
Permanence and regret. Frankie wants the posters to last forever, even though she knows they will rot. She also reflects on regret, wondering whether she will regret everything she has not done, and wishing she had "ruined everything" in the abandoned house.
Family absence. Frankie's father is gone, and she struggles to picture him. She imagines his new wife and half sister, and she fantasizes about kidnapping Frances someday. Zeke's own family is present but strange, with his mother playing violin constantly.
The blood oath. Frankie references the blood oath she and Zeke made, and she uses it to argue that the poster is special because "it has our blood on it." The blood ties the poster to their bond.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 7 deepens the central conflict of the novel: the poster is no longer a private creation but a public act with consequences. The police being called, the posters being torn down, and the map of Coalfield all show that Frankie and Zeke are now engaged in something that ripples outward. The chapter also introduces Mr. Avery, a figure who connects Frankie's small-town world to the larger art world, and it establishes Frankie's insistence on the poster's singularity, which will shape the rest of the story. Her refusal to make a second design, and Zeke's acceptance of that refusal, cements the poster as the defining artifact of their summer.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Frankie refuse to let Zeke make a second poster with a wolf?
Frankie believes that the original poster is perfect and special because it is the first one they made together and because it carries their blood. She fears that creating additional designs with new words would make the poster ordinary and cause it to lose its power. She wants the world to receive only this one thing, and she needs Zeke to understand and agree.
2. What does the map of Coalfield represent to Frankie?
For Frankie, the map is a way to make the poster project feel official and scientific. Each star marks a place where a poster remains, and she feels overwhelmed by all the unmarked space. She wants the entire map to become a single constellation, which reflects her desire for the poster to cover the world and for the project to feel complete and permanent.
3. How does Mr. Avery's introduction complicate Frankie's understanding of art?
Mr. Avery is revealed to have been a famous performance artist with pieces at major museums, but in Coalfield he is just a sick, lonely neighbor. Frankie knows him only as a sweet man who wears a haori and takes walks. His presence suggests that art can be both monumental and invisible, and it hints that Frankie's own creation might one day be understood very differently than she intends.