Chapter 49

A flashback to another story about Sam and his onions explains how having onion juice in your blood will prevent yellow-spotted lizard from biting you. The lizards did not live in Green Lake until the lake dried up. Sam used to give bottles of onion juice to rattlesnake hunters when they went out into the desert where the lizards lived. “The lizards don’t like onion blood.”

Stanley and Zero ride in Ms. Morengo’s car with the air-conditioning on and the windows open to vent out the boys’ oniony smell. Ms. Morengo is Stanley’s father’s lawyer. She explains how she investigated Stanley’s case and found him innocent. Zero confesses to stealing the sneakers and she warns him not to say it ever again. She shows the boys the new product Stanley’s father invented that eliminates foot odor. It smells like peaches. The boys fall asleep as the first rain in over one hundred years falls on Green Lake.

Notes: Thanks to Sam’s onions, the boys survived being covered with yellow-spotted lizards while the lizards kept the Warden and the counselors away until Ms. Morengo and the A.G. came. Stanley’s fate is once again tied into the history of Green Lake. To punctuate this, Stanley’s father’s invention eliminates foot odor (both Clyde Livingston’s and Trout Walker’s problem) and smells like peaches (Katherine Barlow’s special recipe and the sploosh that kept Zero alive).

The rain that finally falls on Green Lake symbolizes that the curse on the lake is broken, as well as the curse between the Zeroni and Yelnats families.

Chapter 50

The narrator points out that Stanley’s father came up with his invention on the same day that Stanley carried Zero up the mountain.

The Warden, Ms. Walker, sold Camp Green Lake. It is to become a Girl Scout Camp.

Stanley and Zero each received almost a million dollars as a result of the stock certificates and notes that were in the suitcase they found. Stanley bought his family a house. Hector hired private investigators.

The final scene is a party at Stanley’s house where all have gathered to see the TV commercial for Stanley’s father’s new product. Clyde Livingston is the spokesperson. He is also at the party. The product is called Sploosh. The commercial receives a round of applause.

Hector is at the party. He is seated in front of a woman who has the same smile as Hector. She sings to him:

If only, if only, the moon speaks no reply; Reflecting the sun and all that’s gone by. Be strong my weary wolf, turn around boldly.

Fly high, my baby bird, My angel, my only.

Notes: The narrator returns to the ironies of fate in this epilogue where he tells the reader to “fill in the holes yourself.” Stanley’s father finds success the day a Yelnats carries a Zeroni up the mountain. Mr. Sir’s quips about Camp Green Lake not being a Girl Scout Camp are overturned. Elements of all three of the Yelnats stories resolve into a happy ending. Finally, the wishful thinking pig lullaby is changed into a song that encourages the young to use the past to move boldly into the future. The puzzle is complete. There are no more holes.