The Mysterious Benedict Society: Chapter 32 Summary & Analysis

Kate comes to Reynie and Sticky’s room. She is cold, in pain, and disappointed in her mission, but she is grateful to have survived her swim. The boys help her warm up, and she tells them about her adventure. She has to admit that there is no way for the children to access the computer room, and to her surprise, Reynie congratulates her on this discovery. He elaborates that since they know they can’t reach that room, they won’t waste time trying. Kate shrugs, but she is secretly pleased to have been useful. The boys tell her they will signal Mr. Benedict, and they send her off to bed.

The next morning at breakfast, Reynie loudly spills juice on Kate’s shoes. He whispers that the Executives know someone swam away from the culvert, and Kate’s soggy shoes would have betrayed her as the spy. The spilled juice gives her a good reason to have wet shoes. Reynie and Sticky explain that S.Q. accidentally destroyed all of Kate’s footprints on the shore. Jackson and Martina approach their table. Jackson holds up the marble Kate threw last night, and he demands to search Kate’s bucket for more marbles. Kate obliges, but her marbles and slingshot are not in the bucket. Once the Executives leave, she tells her friends that she might not know as many facts as Sticky, but she isn’t stupid. She assumed Jackson would find her marble, so she got rid of her other ones.

Jackson and Martina return to the table. Jackson spit out a piece of licorice when he found the marble last night, and the Executives want to check Kate’s shoes to see if the licorice is stuck there. She scrapes the licorice off her shoe and passes it to Reynie, who passes it to Sticky, who passes it to Constance. Constance doesn’t understand what it is, so she holds it up to look at it. When the realization hits her, she panics and swallows the licorice.

Later, the children try to make a plan. Reynie tries to say that he can’t face the Whisperer, but he is too ashamed. His friends are troubled, too. Sticky feels the same as Reynie, and Kate still wishes she managed to sabotage the computers. Constance fears what will happen to her once Mr. Curtain boosts his messages to full power. As Reynie thinks that he can’t face the Whisperer, he amends the thought: he can’t face the Whisperer alone. He proposes the children follow Mr. Benedict’s advice about relying on each other and face Mr. Curtain and the Whisperer together. Kate suggests she and Constance break in during one of Reynie and Sticky’s sessions, but the boys are not scheduled to use the Whisperer until after the Improvement. Drawing inspiration from Constance, who has turned green after eating the old licorice, Sticky points out that they could make the other Messengers ill and take their turns.