Summary
Chapter 191
Christopher now has to find his way around the train station. He goes through a tunnel and up some stairs. He ends up sitting in a café. In order to clear his mind so he can think, he goes through a math problem in his head. After a while a policeman comes up to him and asks him if he is all right. He had apparently been sitting there for two and a half hours. The policeman questions him and Christopher tries to explain that he is going to visit his mother in London, although he does not know when the train leaves and he has neither money nor a ticket. The policeman accompanies him to an ATM machine and Christopher gets some money with his father’s card. This satisfies the policeman, and Christopher goes off on his own to buy a ticket. He manages to find the right platform and get on the train for London.
Chapter 193
Christopher explains that he likes to have a timetable in mind for the day ahead, as that reassures him because he will then know what is going to happen during the day. Sometimes he makes up detailed timetables for each day and for weekends. He likes to have every minute accounted for.
Chapter 197
The train is crowded, which Christopher does not like. He hears his name called and sees the policeman, who tells him that his father is at the police station looking for him. The policeman says that he wants Christopher to go with him to the police station, where they can all have a talk about the situation. The policeman makes a phone call in which he asks for a police car to meet him at the next stop, and then he and Christopher sit down opposite each other. Christopher goes to use the rest room and when he comes out he hides in the luggage rack opposite.
The policeman comes looking for Christopher and runs off when he does not find him. The train stops, and a lady who sees him tells Christopher that someone is out on the platform looking for him. Christopher does nothing, and the train moves on.
Chapter 199
Christopher, who does not believe in God, argues that life on earth evolved by accident, but it was an accident that fulfilled three necessary conditions: replication, mutation, and heritability. Christopher does not believe that humans are any more special than animals. Everything in creation is part of the same evolutionary process.
Analysis, Chapters 191-199
In terms of plot development, these chapters represent a major stepin independence for Christopher. Traveling on his own like this is something he would never have attempted, or been allowed to attempt, under normal circumstances. Even though he is in completely unfamiliar situations, both at the railway station and on the train, he manages to keep focused on what he wants to accomplish. He even manages to elicit information from strangers by asking questions. He is able to calm himself even though the train is crowded (he dos not like crowds) by solving math problems in his head.
There is also a rather comical twist in the plot, which began when Christopher appointed himself as detective in a murder mystery. But now the mystery has been solved, and Christopher is on an adventure in which he himself has attracted the attention of the police (as a runaway). Using a little bit of cunning, hemanages to elude the policeman assigned to his case, whose instructions are to take Christopher back to his father.
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