Chapter 13: Unfortunate Conclusions

Keeping his mouth shut, Milo goes to meet the crowd of silent people. They ask him about the sound, he writes “It’s on the tip of my tongue” and spits it into the cannon. As the group prepares to fire it, Milo suddenly hopes no one gets hurt. Before he has time to think about that, the sound goes flying into the building and the building crashes down. All of the sounds come out at once, and there was lots of confusion. Milo, Tock, and the Humbug go to console the Soundkeeper. The Humbug says the wrong thing, Milo apologizes, Tock reminds her that they had to do it. While she is lamenting the length of time it will take to collect all of the sounds again, and realizing that you cannot improve sound by only having silence, the DYNNE shows up with all of her sounds in a giant sack.   The Soundkeeper invites DYNNE to a night of beautiful music; the DYNNE is horrified and runs off.

Milo prepares to leave the Soundkeeper behind. She gives him a package of sounds to use on his journey and tells them they will soon be in Digitopolis.

They drive along a shoreline road, watching the beach and sea of knowledge.  Each character makes an assumption, and as they do so, they leap off and disappear. Milo is the last to go – thinking that it couldn’t be a nicer day – and finds himself next to Tock and Humbug on the island. The island looks completely different in person. From the car, it was a beautiful island with palm trees and flowers. Up close and personal, it is covered with rocks and dead tree stumps.

Milo asks the first man he sees if he (the man) can tell Milo where they are. The man responds by asking if Milo can tell [the man] who [the man] is. Milo says “you must know who you are” and the man responds with the same level of irritation “you must know where you are” After a conference with his friends, Milo asks the man to describe himself. The man responds with a riddle, and eventually they decide that he is “Canby” (presumably pronounced, “Can be” as he described himself as a bunch of different “can be(s)” (He’s as tall as can be and as short as can be, strong as ... you get it.)

Canby tells them they are on the Island of Conclusions and to make themselves at home, as they will be there for a while. Milo asks how they arrived, and Canby tells them that they jumped, of course.

Humbug tries to jump back and lands in a heap two feet away. Eight or nine more people have arrived from every direction, as well. Canby tells them that the only way back is to swim. The Humbug tells him that he doesn’t like to get wet. Canby replies that “you can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.” Milo and Tock decide to swim, and the Humbug protests. They drag the bug with them toward the sea. They swam for what seemed like hours, Tock being the strongest swimmer. They reach the shore and Milo and Tock are completely soaked. The bug is not, and he straightens his tie and remarks that it wasn’t bad at all.

Remarks:

Milo, Tock, and Humbug “jump to conclusions.” They each made an assumption and have to swim back through the Sea of Knowledge. The Humbug think he knows everything already, so he’s not wet with Knowledge. At least that is what I got. Also, jumping to conclusions has to do with making assumptions before you know all the facts. Milo remarked that the day couldn’t be any nicer, so off he goes. Tock mentions that they have plenty of time, and the humbug thinks that nothing can go wrong. They learn a lesson and off they go!

Milo receives yet another gift for the final boss fight.

Links to Previous Chapters: 

• Chapters 1 & 2
• Chapters 3 & 4
• Chapters 5 & 6
• Chapters 7 & 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12