The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Chapters 191 - 197 Summary

Christopher is in the train station trying to find his way through the crowd of people. It is a very scary situation for him, he describes it as "standing on a cliff in a really strong wind". He feels sick and wants to fall to the ground, but he knows he needs to stay upright, so he grabs hold of a sign. He also has conflicting emotions, he wants to go home, but at the same time he is afraid of his father, which makes going home impossible. He tries to block out all the noise in the station, by covering his ears, so he can think of a way to navigate through the station.

After a while he finds a table and chair, so he sits down and thinks about a math problem. He concentrates on the problem to help him focus his mind on something other than what is happening around him. He is roused from his thoughts by a policeman, who is asking him questions.

The policeman has been alerted to Christopher by a waitress at the café. The policeman asks Christopher if he is all right, where he is going, if he has any money, and if he knows his mother's phone number. Christopher feels safe and more secure while the policeman is with him. He answers all the questions truthfully, except the question of if he has any money. He tells him he has a cashpoint card, instead of telling him he took his father's cashpoint card. He feels this is a white lie, so it isn't a true lie.

The policeman takes Christopher to the cash machine to make sure Christopher owns the card. He feels if Christopher knows the pin number, then the card must be his own. He helps Christopher find the ticket counter and then he leaves Christopher on his own again. Christopher is once again scared, because he feels alone and unsure of himself in the busy station.

After buying his ticket and receiving directions to the train platform, Christopher is left to navigate the station on his own. If someone bumps into him as he is walking, he barks at them to warn them away from him. He continues this way, until he finds the platform and learns how to access it. He needs to pass through sliding glass doors to enter the platform, but he doesn't know how to open the doors. By watching a man push a button to open the doors, Christopher learns how to enter the platform. He is finally on the train to London.

Once on the train, Christopher explains why he likes playing with trains, it is because trains run on timetables. He likes timetables, because then he knows when everything in his life is going to happen. He explains that if a person puts down an object and doesn't make a map of where the object is he can still find it, because it will be where it has been placed. Time is not like that, it is only a way to show how things change in relationship to each other, such as the earth revolving around the sun or the sun rising and setting. Time is different depending on where a person is positioned on the earth, so a timetable makes it easier for Christopher to map his day. He feels timetables keep him from getting lost in time.

The train makes him very nervous, because it is full of strangers and he cannot leave it while it is in motion. He tries to stand completely still on the train to insulate himself against strangers, as he is doing this he hears someone calling his name. He sees it is the policeman from the train station. He is breathing very hard and looks tired, because he has been running to catch the train.

He tells Christopher his father is at the police station looking for him. Christopher tells the policeman he knows his father is looking for him, but he is going to London to live with his mother. The policeman tells him Christopher's father has another point of view and Christopher needs to go with him to talk to his father. Christopher tells the policeman his father killed Mrs. Shears dog. He wants to know if the police have arrested his father for killing the dog. The policeman tells Christopher they will talk about that back at the police station.

The policeman tries to take hold of Christopher, so they can leave the train, but this makes Christopher scream. The train starts to move and the policeman realizes he is stuck on the train, so he radios another policeman to meet them at the Didcot Parkway. While waiting to reach Didcot Parkway, Christopher wets his pants, because he doesn't know the train has a bathroom. The policeman sends him to the bathroom. After using the bathroom Christopher notices two shelves with some luggage on them. They remind him of the cupboard he would crawl into at home, whenever he needed to be alone, so he climbs onto one of the shelves and puts the luggage in front of him, hiding him from view.

The policeman looks for him, but cannot find him. The only person who sees him is a woman, who is removing her luggage from the shelves, but she tells him she will not tell anyone where he is. Christopher feels the train stop and start again, he is not going back with the policeman now.

Christopher is frightened by being in a strange place with strange people, but with the help of a policeman he is able to board the train to London. The policeman tries to take him back to his father, but Christopher hides from him. Christopher, despite his fears, is determined to reach London and live with his mother.



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