Benny Washington, unable to relate to his distant father, and wracked with guilt over the recent death of his mother, seeks solace in best friend Peter Hall, comic books, and ballet-a passion he and Peter share. When Benny learns on the Internet tha...
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EPILOGUE
Ever since that night in the dressing room, Benny has seen that electric arcing in his eyes on more than one occasion and has discovered its frightening side-effects. When he touches other people, he shocks them, sometimes painfully. There have already been a couple of incidents at school, which Benny laughs off as static electricity. But he knows better. His encounter with the creature—and his electrocution—changed him.
He and Peter become big-time celebrities in the days and weeks following the creature's rampage through downtown San Francisco thanks to cell phone footage showing the boys on the cable car when it was attacked. Fortunately, the public doesn't know what really happened in Golden Gate Park and the police want to keep it that way. The "official" version is that the police cornered the creature in the park and destroyed it. As to what it was and where it came from, they have never said specifically, putting forth the theory that it might have been a previously unknown species of prehistoric animal that rose from beneath the earth. To Benny, that story sounds like the plot of a cheap Godzilla movie, but since there's nothing left of the creature to examine, the public has more or less bought it.
Benny's injuries and white hair are explained to school personnel and everyone else who asks as the unfortunate result of an electrocution accident—bad wiring in his house. As Christmas break looms, Benny tries to fly under the radar as much as possible, though he still gets random questions from random kids about what it was like to be attacked by a monster.
Of course, Lamar—angry that Benny and Peter are suddenly so popular—lays into him right off the bat. "You plug yourself into a light socket, Washington?"
Surprisingly, Davonte comes to his aid. "Leave him alone, Lamar." Since Davonte is now several inches taller and beefier, Lamar backs off. From then on, Davonte has occasionally eaten lunch with Benny and Peter as a show of support.
Benny is pleased to have his old friend back but worries that Davonte will ask about the gloves he wears every day. For the moment, he can pass them off as "doctor's orders," due to the burns on his hands. But for how much longer?
Because he's so fully relaxed while dancing, he has not shocked any of his fellow performers during class. But when he's in other classes, or in the hallways of Rooftop—especially with so many kids hitting him up for details about the monster—he's more self-conscious and those heightened emotions seem to exacerbate his "shocking" ability.
There is one curious sidebar to his transformation - Peter is immune. They experiment by having Benny place his hand on Peter's bare arm or clasping Peter's hand, but nothing ever happens.
"Maybe it's 'cause I brought you back and, you know—" Peter glances down, his cheeks reddening. "Did the mouth to mouth part."
Benny averts his eyes, his stomach clenching with embarrassment. "Maybe."
