Demon Copperhead

Demon’s mom is released from rehab and returns home, where Demon restarts his supervised visitation. He finds it unfair that she’s allowed home and he’s not. Stoner stays away during these visits, and Demon’s mother confesses that Stoner doesn’t think Demon should come home because the stress of three people under one roof might make her relapse again.

Demon relishes the autumn car rides between Crickson’s farm and Demon’s house. Miss Barks is very young and is taking night classes to be a teacher because that job pays better than being a social worker. She asks Demon what he wants to be when he grows up and he’s embarrassed to answer that he doesn’t know. No one has asked him about his future, so he hasn’t thought about it beyond hoping to stay alive.

Demon’s mom reveals that she’s pregnant. Demon suggests the name Tommy or Sterling, after Fast Forward’s real name. She confesses that Stoner doesn’t want the baby. Demon and his mom spend a great day together. When Stoner comes home, Demon is supposed to speak with him for a half hour to start mending the family. Stoner quotes phrases from couples counseling, telling Demon that if he moves back in, he’ll have to take medication for his “opposition disorder.” Stoner also declares that if Demon moves back in, he still can’t play with Maggot, or he’ll call the police about an injunction against the Peggots.

The well on the farm runs out. Crickson blames Tommy, whose chores include hosing down supplies and watering the animals. Demon knows it was actually Fast Forward, who used the hose to wash his car. Demon is sure Fast Forward will tell the truth to save Tommy; Crickson wouldn’t do anything to Fast Forward. Demon is surprised when Fast Forward doesn’t say anything, and Crickson thrashes Tommy.

As the weather turns, Demon notices how cold Crickson’s house is. The rumor is that Crickson kicks out foster boys during the winter when there is less work to do, but Demon believes that he’ll be home by Christmas anyway. On Fridays, Crickson takes the younger boys to watch Fast Forward star as quarterback on the local high school football team. Fast Forward teaches Demon how to throw and catch a football.

Demon discovers that Tommy has his own private project on the farm. Far away from view, Tommy digs two graves for his dead parents since he has never seen their real graves. Tommy has dug metaphorical graves for his parents at every foster home he’s lived in.

Along with his cattle business, Crickson farms tobacco. Cutting tobacco is grueling work, and Crickson keeps the boys out of school for most of October to help with it. Demon doesn’t wear his gloves, not knowing that doing so will give him tobacco poisoning. Tobacco used to be a profitable business, but recent government policies have made it less lucrative, and it is rumored that most of the tobacco sold in America comes from China. Large corporate farms do well, but independent family farms in places like Appalachia struggle to get by. Even so, the farmers who inherit their business feel that they must continue trying to break even on their land.

Demon’s birthday comes around on November 19. He hopes someone will remember or know about it. Miss Barks comes to his school, but not with happy birthday news: She cries and tells Demon that his mother died of an overdose of OxyContin.

Demon sees the irony in his mother dying on his birthday. At the funeral, he scoffs at the women who comfort the supposedly grieving Stoner. Demon resents his mother for dying: He is “[m]ad at everybody but mostly her, for marrying Stoner and then ditching us both, running off to some heaven where she could throw her shit anywhere at all, and nobody would ever lay a hand on her again” (109). Later in his life, Demon will come to understand the layers and complications of drug addiction, but as a child, he is only angry. Demon rides in the hearse to his mother’s grave, which is in Stoner’s family plot.

In the 1990s, no one knew the dangers of OxyContin. It was supposed to be a safe drug for people suffering pain brought on by athletics or manual labor.

The Peggots clean out Demon’s home and rent it to Aunt June’s high school friend.

Stoner and Demon have supervised meetings. Stoner plans on moving back into the apartment he had before marrying Demon’s mom. Demon resents that Stoner is “getting a complete do-over, and [Demon] [is] stuck with the leftovers of him and Mom” (115). Because Stoner showed up to couples counseling when Demon’s mom was alive, and because Demon’s mom claimed she was the one who abused Demon, Stoner is allowed to decide what will happen to Demon. Stoner never addresses the fact that Demon’s little brother died with their mother, but Demon constantly thinks about this. Though he still hates Stoner, Demon wishes he would show some interest in Demon’s life. Demon hopes the Peggots will invite him to visit Aunt June in Knoxville for the winter break.

Maggot helps Demon get invited to Knoxville, but during the drive, Demon can tell that Mrs. Peggot isn’t happy to have him along. Demon wonders “Was this me now, for life? Taking up space where people wished I wasn’t? Once on a time I was something, and then I turned, like sour milk” (121).

In Knoxville, many changes have occurred. Aunt June has officially adopted Emmy, who now calls her “mom.” Aunt June wants to move back to Lee County to be close to family.

At night, Emmy sneaks out of her room to talk privately with Demon. She asks him about foster care; she is the first person to truly talk with him about everything. They lie down together, and Demon feels less sad and lonely.

Aunt June is extra kind to Demon. Emmy continues to visit with him at night. He tells her about all the things she can look forward to in Lee County, like birds and trees. He also tells her about his mother’s pregnancy, which no one else but Stoner knows about. Emmy confesses that her biological mother is alive but gave up custody of Emmy a long time ago. Emmy lived with the Peggots as a baby, but they couldn’t take care of both her and Maggot, so she ended up with Aunt June. The midnight talks make Demon fall in love with Emmy. She asks him to go to second base with her, and he touches her breast. Maggot either pretends not to know or is truly asleep during these visits. During the day, neither Emmy nor Demon act any differently, but Demon shows off by bragging about his connection to Fast Forward, whom Emmy is interested in meeting.

June invites her neighbor, Mrs. Gummidge, to Christmas breakfast because Mrs. Gummidge lives alone and often babysits Emmy. Demon is surprised that he’s receiving Christmas presents as well. Aunt June also gives him a gift—a set of markers and a journal of comic strips to illustrate. Demon hopes that the Peggots’ Christmas gifts for him mean they want to adopt him.

Mrs. Peggot invites Demon to stay with them for the remainder of the holiday break. Demon privately brings up adoption with Mrs. Peggot. She assures him that she has discussed the prospect with Mr. Peggot, but they decided not to adopt or foster him. They’re getting old, Mr. Peggot has diabetes, Mrs. Peggot has cataracts, and they find it difficult even to raise Maggot. Maggot’s mother is set to be released in two years, and they can’t take in any other children. Mrs. Peggot says she hopes Demon will be adopted soon because adoption becomes less common once a child reaches adolescence. Demon is ashamed to cry in front of Mrs. Peggot, but he sits and sobs with her.

Miss Barks places Demon in a new foster home. The McCobbs are a married couple with four children. Brayley and Haillie are in first and second grade, and there are two infants referred to as “the Twins.” The family struggles to make ends meet, so they take in Demon for the money. They show Miss Barks Brayley’s bedroom and lie that it will be Demon’s room. Instead, Demon sleeps in the dank laundry room. Mr. McCobb tells Demon he’ll need to find a job to help pay for food, even though Demon is only 11 years old.

Demon spends that year starving. When he tells Miss Barks how little he gets to eat, she investigates. The McCobbs tell her they do feed Demon well, and Miss Barks suggests to Demon that he ask for seconds. Mrs. McCobb takes Demon along on her trips to pawnshops, where she desperately tries to sell their belongings. The family doesn’t even have furniture in the living room because it was repossessed.

Demon starts sneaking snacks from the stash above the fridge. Though he’s careful not to make it obvious, when the stash is moved, he realizes that he has been caught. He befriends Haillie, who tells him that the snacks are now stashed in her and Bayley’s rooms. She tells him she’ll bring him Oreos but that he must eat them outside. She points to a baby monitor in the laundry room and insinuates that the McCobbs are filming Demon.

Mr. McCobb finds Demon a job at Golly’s Market. Part of Demon’s pay will be dinner, which thrills him. When he shows up to work, Mr. Golly takes him out back, where Demon sees an enormous pile of trash and, surprisingly, Swap-Out. Swap-Out has dropped out of school, meaning he is much older than Demon thought. Swap-Out now lives with some roommates in an apartment. Demon meets his new boss, nicknamed Ghost. Demon is surprised to discover that Ghost is one of Stoner’s friends and that Demon met him once the year before.

Demon is paid $16 for four hours of work each day. His job is to sort through the enormous trash pile, and it exposes him to acid, human feces, and rats.

By fifth grade, Demon is one of the tallest boys in his class. Guys pick him to play on their teams, and girls flirt with him. Despite his difficult situation, he doesn’t think less of himself. However, while he is serving detention at recess one day, girls drop their private notebooks off on his desk. He reads through them, seeing ratings and comments on all the kids in school. He’s shocked by what his peers really think about him: They write that he’s an “asshole,” “trash,” a “loser,” etc. This changes the way Demon sees himself. He notices that the other students distance themselves from him and that he looks unkempt, like the impoverished students he used to make fun of.

When Mrs. McCobb asks Demon how his day was, he punches at her car, losing his temper. He points out to her that as worried as she is about her children being seen as poor, she hasn’t considered that Demon looks impoverished and that everyone at school knows who he lives with. Mrs. McCobb takes him shopping for new clothes, but at school, he still feels bad about himself: “I was just that much more pitiful, because of trying. Loser is a cliff. Once you’ve gone over, you’re over” (158). Demon holds on to the memory of an older “redneck” in the back of the bus noting that Demon would make a good addition to a football team; it is the one nice thing Demon hears about himself that year.

Demon misses living with Fast Forward. He wishes he had Fast Forward to show him how to shave and to confirm Demon’s suspicion that he is working for a meth lab.

Miss Barks says she has a surprise for Demon, but he’s worried about missing work. Evil Eye, nicknamed for the tattoo of an eye on his neck, is Stoner’s friend and Demon’s direct boss. Demon is intimidated by him and doesn’t want to anger Evil Eye by skipping work.

Miss Barks reveals that Demon is entitled to social security checks from the government due to his mother’s death (because Demon’s father is not on his birth certificate, he doesn’t receive money for his father’s death). He’ll receive a check every month for the duration of his time in foster care. Miss Barks suggests putting the money into his own account, which he’ll be able to collect from when he turns 18; this will prevent his foster families from accessing his money.

Miss Barks also tells Demon that she is completing her teaching certificate and quitting her social worker job. Demon feels betrayed but is learning that people are constantly seeking more money and better jobs.