50 pages • 1 hour read
Kevin WilsonNow Is Not the Time to Panic
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
The next day, Frankie and Zeke make 300 more copies of the poster. Zeke purchases a map of Coalfield to track the locations they display it. While passing the movie theater, they notice an employee taking down several they posted previously. Frankie recognizes the employee as a friend of her brothers, so she asks him about the posters, pretending to know nothing about their origin. The employee, Jake, is annoyed that his boss has ordered him to remove all the posters, adding that the boss also informed the police, who were unconcerned. Back in the car, Zeke worries they will be caught and reprimanded, but Frankie is unafraid. They head to an abandoned house that is a known teenager hangout for drinking, drugs, and sex. They decide to cover an entire room of the house with posters, a task that takes two hours. As they work, Frankie daydreams about the posters enduring decades beyond the present moment, though she knows this is not likely.
The next morning, Frankie thinks of her father, imagining his present life and trying to picture him living in her house once again. Her mother asks her what she and Zeke plan to do all day, and Frankie momentarily wishes she could show her the poster or her novel in progress. When Zeke arrives, he is nervous because he felt Frankie’s neighbor was suspicious of him. Frankie explains that the neighbor, Mr. Avery, is a former performance artist from Los Angeles. At the time, Frankie is unaware of the prestige Mr. Avery has garnered for his art.
Zeke says that he spent the previous night working on a new drawing, hopeful that Frankie will want to incorporate it into a new poster. Frankie hesitates, but then asserts that she does not want to make a second design, fearing it will diminish the importance of the existing poster. Zeke concedes that this is wise, and they proceed to make more photocopies.
Chapter 7 Summary
During the span of four days, Frankie and Zeke display the poster in multiple locales around town, ranging from the Hardee’s dumpster to the headstone of a Confederate soldier in the cemetery. Frankie works fervently on the draft of her novel. One afternoon, she finds her brothers gathered in the living room, studying a copy of the poster. Frankie feigns ignorance, asking her brothers what they think its meaning and origin might be. Their mother enters, holding her own copy of the poster. She asks the boys if they are its authors and is relieved when they deny creating it. She notes that a man named Hobart—a friend of hers who writes for a local newspaper—plans to write an article on the poster. Hobart, she says, “figures it’s a bunch of teenagers messing around, but he says it’s pretty sophisticated” (76). Hobart has speculated that the sentences on the poster are by the French poet Rimbaud and that the artwork is by an “underground comic” (76). Her brothers continue to study the poster, attempting to make sense of the marks that only Frankie knows to be drops of blood. She tells them she feels they look like stars.
“Mazzy Brower” Summary
Adult Frankie is alone folding laundry when Mazzy Brower calls again. Frankie tries to end the call, but Mazzy repeatedly attempts to convince Frankie to agree to speak with her about the poster incident. Mazzy compromises by assuring Frankie that their meeting will be “off the record,” reminding Frankie that the events that unfolded in the late 1990s were important because “People died…it’s a big deal” (80). Frankie tries to prevent the memories of that time from returning.
Chapter 8 Summary
As Frankie and Zeke drive around putting up posters and stuffing them into mailboxes, Frankie thinks about the town of Coalfield. She feels it does not fit the stereotyped view many hold of the American South. She admits that she might even love the town and that she wants Zeke to love it too. Zeke tells her that his grandmother heard of the posters at her Bible study when a member insisted its words pertained to satanic worship. They head to the grocery store to get snacks and check the status of their posters; Zeke kisses Frankie in the parking lot. Though Frankie feels the kiss is important because it is their first in public, no one around them notices. Frankie imagines how the rest of the summer might play out, but adult Frankie notes that none of this actually happens.
The next night, a Friday, two of Frankie’s classmates fail to return home. When they resurface the next morning, they tell a story of being abducted by two individuals in a van who called themselves “the fugitives.” The fugitives took the teens to the abandoned house, where they played satanic music and drugged them. Frankie’s brothers verify that the story is a lie, having been at the abandoned house themselves that night. Hobart, however, arrives later with news that the police regard the threat of the fugitives as credible and that he intends to pursue this newsworthy information. Zeke arrives then, and Frankie’s brothers inform him of the rumors of the “satanic sex drug cult” (91).
Frankie senses Zeke’s anxiety and fears that he will reveal to Hobart that they are the authors of the poster. She ushers him away to talk in private. She tries to reassure him that the police involvement is merely because Coalfield—unlike Memphis—is a small town whose residents overreact. She stresses that the two can still control the poster, but Zeke is not convinced, fearful that they will be arrested for displaying them. Frankie does not wish to stop putting up copies of the posters around town. As they argue, Frankie abruptly removes the notebook with Zeke’s drawings from his backpack and, in turn, hands him the copy of her novel in progress. The two absorb one another’s art silently, no longer discussing the poster.
News of the teenagers’ alleged abduction appears on the front page of the next day’s newspaper. Hobart—who, Frankie observes, has spent the night at their home—tells them that a Nashville newspaper has expressed interest in the events. Zeke arrives later, telling Frankie how fearful he is that Hobart’s news story will “ruin [their] lives” (97). Reluctantly, he rides along with Frankie as they track the places in Coalfield where the posters are still present. Zeke refuses to allow Frankie to replace the posters that have been torn down. At one point, Zeke notices a poster at a location not marked on their map. Frankie inspects it, and it is evident that it is a photocopy of one of their photocopies. Zeke is concerned, confused as to why someone else would copy their art and then display it themself. Frankie insists that this is evidence of the poster’s greatness and convinces Zeke to hang more copies.
An article about the posters appears in the statewide newspaper a few days later. It contains statements by an attorney hired to represent the allegedly abducted teens and contains speculation by everyone from religious leaders to academics on the source of the poster’s sentences and imagery. Frankie immediately knows that Zeke will be further worried about the additional news coverage and plans to convince him that the best response is for them to continue to hang the posters.
Chapter 9 Summary
The posters spread, appearing in towns beyond Coalfield. Some of the versions are different than Zeke and Frankie’s. Frankie feels Zeke is less anxious upon learning that the two of them are no longer solely responsible for the poster’s presence. They even witness other people hanging up versions of the poster. Frankie thinks about how—in this time before the internet’s ubiquity—media spreads slowly and by rudimentary means from single person to single person.
On one occasion, Zeke draws on the outside of empty soda bottles, and they place the posters inside of them for the bottles to become time capsules. As the summer unfolds, Zeke continues to draw, and Frankie drafts the novel. He tells her his mother has taken some steps toward obtaining a divorce from his father, though he does not know if she will ultimately follow the process through to completion. Frankie fears Zeke will move back to Memphis, but Zeke assures her that they will remain friends even if a move happens.
Days pass, and a teenager named Lyle Tawwater dies after falling from a water tower in an attempt to affix a poster to its top. Frankie’s brother finds a copy of one of Lyle’s posters, and though it is not her poster, Frankie feels guilty. Soon, a group of locals who has been patrolling the town to stifle the spread of the poster unintentionally shoots and injures several people. Though Frankie and Zeke continue to hang the poster, the town is overrun with other versions of it and graffiti of its words and images.
One afternoon Frankie and Zeke eat at a Sonic Drive-In, where one of her brothers works. They share childhood stories and memories. Zeke wonders if the posters would continue to spread even if he and Frankie were to stop hanging the original version. He contemplates their role in Lyle’s death, though Frankie tries to assuage his guilt. Zeke concedes that the poster will keep spreading with or without their involvement.
The chapter closes with several examples of the poster achieving national acclaim, appearing in news venues, television shows, songs, and other forms of art. Adult Frankie still possesses the original poster and at times makes copies and hangs them in public.
Chapters 6-9 Analysis
The importance of the poster to Frankie is evident, and it becomes a central component in her characterization. She takes great interest in observing and gauging the reaction of others who encounter it. Frankie recognizes that, initially, the poster matters to only her and Zeke. They focus upon displaying the poster in as many places as possible, more concerned with accomplishing this goal than with whether the poster is noticed. Her brothers find it intriguing and appear mystified by it, and, as they are portrayed as much more “normal” teens than Frankie in her own estimation, this gives the poster a kind of mainstream esteem and credibility. Yet the fact that their mother is relieved to learn her brothers are not the poster’s authors serves to solidify Frankie’s belief that she must keep her role in the poster a secret. Though she does not overtly acknowledge it, Frankie values her mother’s approval (evidenced by her insistence on obtaining her permission to travel to Memphis with Zeke in Chapter 10).
The novel’s setting is an essential element: That Coalfield is a small town is an important factor in how the poster is received. Because it is not a large metropolis, the poster is noticeable, thus garnering the attention of the residents. Arguably, too, the moral panic elicited by the poster is less likely to take hold in a city. The small-town setting also means that Lyle Tawwater is Frankie’s peer, not a stranger, which causes her (and Zeke) to feel guilt over his death. The late-1990’s is also a vital aspect of the setting. Were they to make the poster in the internet age, not only would they be more likely to make it public by posting it via an online venue, but its spread would be unremarkable. Instead, Frankie and Zeke’s duplication of the poster is a more labor-intensive process, one they feel they can control. Importantly, they initially limit their display of the poster to Coalfield, making its spread to other cities and states even more unbelievable. The setting, too, makes possible instances of irony as teenage Frankie repeatedly longs for the poster to remain displayed permanently in the places she and Zeke choose, knowing that, realistically, the posters will be torn down at some point. Metaphorically, however, the poster leaves its mark on both Coalfield and Frankie indefinitely.
Much of the section concerns the theme of art’s social role and the responsibility of the artist. As its “audience” grows, Zeke and Frankie lose a degree of ownership. Zeke and Frankie respond differently to the poster’s spread. Zeke’s anxiety and fear of the negative repercussions that could befall them may be connected to his mental health condition Frankie will later learn he has. This is apparent only in retrospect, since he keeps his struggles a secret from Frankie and his condition is not yet accurately diagnosed. Frankie, however, repeatedly convinces Zeke to continue to hang the poster. Similarly, while Zeke insists they are directly to blame for Lyle’s death, Frankie disagrees. She is frustrated that Zeke wishes to stop hanging the poster—evidence, in her mind, that he fails to understand the poster’s power and importance. In this way, despite their commonalities, they serve as foils for one another. This section indicates that Frankie clings to the power of the poster well into her adulthood in a way that readers come to learn Zeke does not do.
Instances of foreshadowing are also prominent throughout this section. For instance, as they paper the walls of a room of the abandoned house, Frankie dreams of the posters remaining there forever. Though she knows they will be torn down, symbolically, they will remain present—Frankie will never be able to forget the poster’s phrase, though at times it serves to haunt her rather than empower her. The Coalfield Panic, as it comes to be known, not only will gain national attention but will be remembered by its residents in the years and decades that follow. Teenage Frankie cannot predict the impact the poster will have, despite her longing for it to have such a meaning. She is certain that the poster will forever tie her to Zeke, and in some respects, this becomes true: In her adulthood, Frankie is unable to forget or move on from either her friendship with Zeke or the events of that summer.
