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I Know This Much is True Chapter 24 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • We're still in 1969. Dominick says he and Dessa drove out to the Falls to talk: "We made up. Made love" (24.1). We hope it was consensual this time.
  • Then he quits Public Works and shakes Ralph's hand on the way out.
  • Strangely, before heading off to school, Thomas starts dating Dessa's sister, Angie.
  • Dominick, being the class act he is, dreams of having sex with Angie instead.
  • At school, Angie and Thomas's relationship is going swimmingly. Angie is in love, she wants to have kids…
  • Until Thomas reveals the weirdest fetish ever: having Angie read aloud from The Lives of Martyred Saints while he gets off… without touching himself.
  • After that, Dominick introduces Angie to Leo and it's been the two of them ever since.
  • Meanwhile, Dell Weeks gets arrested for child pornography.
  • After Dominick and Leo's pot bust and interrogation, the cops investigated Dell's house and were surprised to find not drugs, but porn.
  • Lots of the porn was of Ralph. They took him in when he was ten… and used him for their sexual pleasure. Ugh.
  • Leo takes credit for this bust, all because he lied to the cops: "We performed a public service" (24.21), he says.
  • In December, it's time for the draft. Dominick is safe, but Thomas isn't since they were born on two different days; Thomas is one hundredth in line.
  • Dominick explains that he can defer being drafted by being in school… but Thomas quits school.
  • He gets drafted, but he fails the psychiatric exam.
  • Ray says that Thomas keeps talking about the Russians coming to get him.
  • Thomas tells Dominick about how their dentist planted a radio receiver in a filling and that he hears religious voices in his head—that's why he had to break up with Angie, he says; to protect her.