Chapter 8 illuminates the dark side of Robison’s sense of humor. He confesses that, as he gets older, the years of torment he suffers at the hands of other children metastasize. His pain turns to anger and is reflected in his increasingly deceitful pranks. After a minor accident with his grandmother’s car that necessitates fixing her mailbox, Robison becomes fixated on his Uncle Bob’s (and later his father’s) posthole digger. He begins to dig holes all over his yard and in the mulch pile at the side of the house. He lures his brother outside and dumps him in a deep hole headfirst. He leaves him there for 10 to 15 minutes, impassive despite Christopher’s fury. As far as Robison is concerned, the prank is successful because “this was a fine hole, able to trap a big kid” (75).

The pranks continue. On Halloween he fills the holes in the yard with flash powder wired to detonators in his room. As trick-or-treaters pass the holes, he ignites the powder, causing small explosions of dirt and rock, terrifying the neighborhood kids. He ignores his school counselor who warns him that his pranks border on “evil,” and he saves the most elaborate for last.