She thinks he's in there alone playing with the Japanese war souvenirs again, so he threatens to tell Dad about it. Jack's mother tries to get into the garage, where he and his father are having a clandestine conversation.Wow, Jack's dad sure seems to have a lot going on. We now find out that mowing the corn was actually to clear the space to build a runway.He doesn't really know how to fly, but he plans to take lessons and will teach Jack what he learns. So, the big secret in the garage? Jack's father is hiding a fixer-upper airplane in the garage.Apparently, Jack's mom uses Jack's nose as a sort of low-tech lie detector: if his nose bleeds when he answers a question, then he's lying.In the end, he decides to do it, and mows the remaining three rows down. Jack agonizes over whether or not to finish mowing down the corn. (BTW: Eleanor Roosevelt? Not a communist.) This is an ongoing argument, and it's always the same: Mom wants to stay, and Dad wants to leave, because the town was founded by 'that rich Commie Roosevelt woman' (4.43), i.e.Uh, minor problem: no one else in the family is interested in moving. The next surprise? Dad says that they might be able to move to Florida within a year.His father then securely locked the garage door, which he never did. Creepy! Just last night, Jack saw him drive into the garage with a trailer carrying an unidentified object. Then, we get a flashback: Jack's dad has something hidden in the garage.It turns out that Jack is stuck in the middle of a pretty heated argument between his parents. Are you getting the sense that Jack's parents have some issues to work out? Yeah, us too.Jack's father admits that he made Jack cut down the corn, so that he can build a bomb shelter, since the ' Russian commies' will soon drop an atom bomb.Right on cue, Jack's nose starts bleeding from this stress.

He also gets caught (we saw that one coming from a mile away).

Jack goes along with this, because he doesn't want his mom to tell his dad about the Japanese sniper rifle incident.

And then, in a weird twist, Jack's father orders him to mow down his mother's corn, which she was growing to sell so she can buy food for Norvelt's needy people.

Okay, we're starting to feel a little sorry for Jack now.

Plus, his dad has just returned from a job he was working out of town, and would 'go ape' if he finds out about it (4.4).

He hides the ticket, planning to pay it off himself so that his Mom doesn't find out and ground him.

When Jack gets up the next morning, he finds out that his family has been ticketed for the weeds obstructing the gutters.

Remember the weeds that Jack cut down yesterday? Yeah, evidently he didn't bother to dispose of them properly.

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos