Motif · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Carl's family

'After a stint in the US Coast Guard, I ended up working as a marine tech.' What Carl says of himself in the first chapter, and what leaks out after: a mother who locked him in the basement with his father's Frogger machine whenever his father's friends came over, and who left; a heavily tattooed father who laughed at him, broke his slingshot and never replaced it, and drove on past a wrecked moving truck saying it was a shame.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 18 — Heat two: the hail, and Team Sparkles' cannon
• Chapter 51 — The Scavenger's Daughter blinks; Azra; heat four results
• Chapter 70 — The memorial crystal; the Midnight Epicure
• Chapter 74 — Human shells; Ad Infinitum
• Chapter 76 — Apartment 231; the peach beer

Progression

The memories keep arriving: bail for the Walmart sisters (ch. 13); his mother singing 'Black and White' (ch. 18); the fish tank and the helmet (ch. 23); a youth facility in another country, the same as his (ch. 76); his father's gun at a pig's head (ch. 94). And the found family: Donut to Jamal, 'that’s what family does' (ch. 44); Finley's 'They’re my family' (ch. 44); 'I consider you my brothers and sisters' (ch. 72); 'We do this together' (ch. 98).