I’m the King of the Castle: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

One day, Helena Kingshaw excitedly tells Charles that she’s going to London with Joseph for a day. Charles recognizes that this is his chance. Helena is a little remorseful that she isn’t taking Charles with her, but she tells herself, as she chooses her clothes, that she should think of herself more.

Charles decides that he’ll leave at dawn. He’s sure that nobody will even check in his room—however, he knows that his mother probably will come into his room to check on him that night. Nevertheless, this will give him plenty of time. He counts his money—money that friends and family have given him for holidays and birthdays—and finds that he has seven pounds.

Meanwhile, Joseph asks Helena to keep him company in the sitting room while he builds a fire.

Charles sets his alarm clock for 5:30 am. He has packed some food in an old school satchel, and he has enough money to buy more. He also packs string, a torch (i.e., flashlight), bandages, and a penknife.

Charles wakes up at 4 am, feeling very afraid. He knows that he should think of his plan as a fun adventure, but he can’t help thinking of scenarios that would require him to stay home that day.

Charles get out of bed and sneaks outside, past the yew trees. He turns around and takes a look at Warings, and the house looks like an old, ugly face. The weather is very cold as he walks through the fields. He remembers walking here before and being menaced by the crow. But he continues walking.

Charles nears the woods outside Warings. He remembers how Edmund dared him to come here—and this dare, he knows, “had been the start of it all.” By the time he comes to the edge of the wood, the sun has risen. He imagines his mother, and Joseph Hooper, who have probably just gotten up to leave for London.

As he stands on the edge of the wood, Charles feels proud of himself for packing his satchel and leaving the house. At school, he was the kind of boy who other boys would forget about—he wasn’t particularly good or bad at anything. But then, he notices a wart on the back of his finger. This frightens him, because his classmates have told him stories about how doctors treat warts with hot needles. One of Charles’s classmates, whose name was Broughton-Smith, had so many warts on his body that he had to go to the doctor. Afterwards, he had horrible brownish marks all over his body. Somebody suggested that the only way to get rid of warts is to wish them on someone else. Charles half-wonders if Broughton-Smith has passed on the warts to him.

Charles jumps over the ditch that surrounds the wood. He closes his eyes and takes a dozen steps forward. When he opens his eyes, he’s inside Hang Wood.