Black Swan Green: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Jason is nervous about “cherry-knocking” the door of Mr. Blake (ringing the doorbell or knocker and running away), but Moron, Pete Redmarley, Dawn, Giles “Pluto” Noak, and others are watching him. Jason bragged about how good Hugo was at cherry-knocking after he saw Dawn making out with Ross Wilcox. Jason is trying to rig a way to set off a knock from a safe distance with the reel of thread. He freezes when the window of Mr. Blake’s house snaps open, but eventually, it shuts again. He makes his way back, and Pluto tugs on the thread. It sets off the knocker, and Mr. Blake comes out.

Pete and Wilcox pretend to be having a normal conversation while Mr. Blake looks at them. Dawn seems impressed, and Jason is happy. They knock again, and Mr. Blake is even angrier when he comes out this time. He comes back to the boys, accusing Pluto, whose father also got into trouble, and threatening to call the police, but Pluto acts innocent. Eventually, they all go, leaving the thread behind.

The next day at school, the usually unpopular Jason is surprised at how many people are asking him about cherry-knocking Mr. Blake’s door. That day in art class, he gets a note signed “Spooks” telling him to come to the graveyard at 8:00 p.m. Spooks are supposedly a secret society that originally formed to help farmhands get better wages. Jason figures his cherry-knocking stunt must have impressed someone, but he’s not sure where the note came from.

That night at dinner, Jason’s mum makes the family spaghetti Bolognese. She mentions how in the store that day, she ran into her old university friends Penny and Yasmin. After a divorce, Yasmin got into the interior design business, and she just recently offered Jason’s mum a job at her firm. Jason’s dad says it’s a flattering offer but seems to assume she won’t accept. Jason’s mum says she’ll make her decision by Monday. Jason says he’s pleased, and Julia urges her to take the job. Jason looks at his watch, which is just a Casio now, and he notes that his meeting with the Spooks is coming up soon.

Jason heads to the graveyard. It seems deserted at first. All of a sudden, Moron surprises him. Jason learns that Moron got a similar note. The two of them wander around the graveyard until eventually they find Pluto Noak, Grant Burch, and a boy named John Tookey. They explain the rules of becoming a Spook, which involves climbing over a wall and sneaking across several back gardens within 15 minutes. Jason volunteers to go first.

Jason starts off through the back gardens. At the third one, Mr. Broadwas’s house, he makes a noise and draws attention. Mr. Broadwas and his wife argue about whether it’s just a fox in the backyard or one of the neighborhood kids again. Eventually, Mr. Broadwas finds Jason, who is worried because Mr. Broadwas knows his dad. Jason claims he’s just getting a tennis ball, but Mr. Broadwas knows about the Spooks and points Jason in the right direction.

Jason accidentally steps in a pond in the next garden. He then sneaks through Mr. Blake’s back garden, which has a large greenhouse in it. The last garden belongs to Squelch’s family. Jason tries to stay hidden, even as his watch tells him time is nearly up. He makes a run for it just as the big clock in town is chiming and reaches the goal with only seconds to spare. Grant Burch, Pete Redmarley and Gilbert Swinyard are there to congratulate him.

All of a sudden, Jason and the others hear the distant sound of Moron falling through a broken fence into Mr. Blake’s greenhouse. Jason wants to go help him, in case he’s hurt, but Grant and Pluto insist that Moron knew the rules and that Spooks have to maintain secrecy. They tell Jason to go home, but instead he goes to Mr. Blake’s house, where he overhears Mr. Blake calling an ambulance for Moron.