October Sky
Chapter 19: Picking Up and Going On
After Mr. Bykovski's death, Sonny only blames himself for what happened. Sonny shuts down and refuses to talk to anyone and feels nothing. He yells at his friends and tries to be how he thinks people from Coalwood are. Only after speaking with Mrs. Bykovski does Sonny begin to move on. She tells Sonny Ike could have returned to the shop at anytime he wanted to but he stayed in the mine because they liked the money. She also said that Ike would insist on Sonny proceding with his rocket building. Sonny is still angry after the decision, when they launched their rockets he declares he will be in charge from then on. Roy Lee eventually ends up punching him, the physical pain from the punch allows Sonny to move past the emotional pain.
Chapter 21: Zincoshine
Many more people are now showing up the the Rocket Boys' launches, since now they have become remarkable aspect to Coalwood. The rockets start to reach their maximum point of their propellant's capability. The boys now have to try something new, they want to start using Zinc but it requires something to be mixed with it. Few possibilites had been taken into consideration and the result appeared to be alcohol. The boys visit the local moonshine producers to get pure alcohol. The boys didn't tell them what they needed the alcohol for, so they ended up drinking it and get drunk. The compound seems to work almost too adequately, the rocket reaches a mile causing it to land in Coalwood. The incident draws attention to a company man who then tries to get Cape Coalwood torn down. The miners react to this and begin to fight back, soon even Sonny's dad joins them to retaliate against the company worker.
Chapter 20: O'Dell's Treasure
After Sonny learns that his father's eye will most likely never be entirely operative again, the family started ignoring each other and became very diconnected. Because of the accident Sonny has to get a ride from Jake to school. When he takes him Jake ends up meeting Miss Riley. The bigger part of this chapter covers the trip the Rocket Boys make for them to earn money. The boys adventure out to dig and collect metal pipes from the ground to sell as scrao metal. Sonny gets his wrist cut open from one of the sharp metal pieces. The boys have no choice but to carry him back to town for miles, while the doctor is stitching up his cut Sonny collapses. The boys then realize the metal barely covers the expenses for food from the trip and there's not enough to cover the price of the stitches. The boys wax Jake's car so they can earn more money to pay for everything.
