Notes From The Midnight Driver - Week of 01.21.14

Pages read: 42 - 78
Prompt: Explain how you have been surprised throughout the story.

I have been surprised a lot in the story so far. The biggest surprise to me was when Alex finally stood up to Solomon and his insults and instead of Solomon saying something really mean back, he had a proud face on. Both Alex and I were so shocked when Solomon told him to call him Sol. When Sol saw the look of perplexity on Alex's face he said that sometimes it is good to stand up to someone, to let the anger out. The reason I was so surprised was because every time  Alex tried to talk to Sol, he would just come up with some nonsense insult, or pretend he wasn't there. Once Alex finally said something mean back to him, when he gave Sol a taste of his own medicine, Sol was proud. After I read this part in the book I made a few predictions. I thought that maybe Alex will learn a few life lessons from Sol, even if he doesn't think Sol is helping him, I think that Sol will help Alex tremendously.

 I was so surprised that the first time Laurie came to the nursing home, Sol thought that they were dating. When Sol first saw Laurie he told Laurie that she better call Alex her husband now. It was a pretty awkward situation since both ALex and Laurie had no other feelings than friends toward each other. Or did they? When Sol brought his idea of them dating Laurie told him that they were just friends but Sol responded by saying, " With the way he's looking at you, I figure I should start calling him your husband." Again Laurie told him no, and while Laurie and Sol were talking, Alex had a strange thought, "What did Sol mean by the way I looked at her?" When I read this, I had a little hope that maybe Alex does like Laurie.

I was also very surprised at the fact that Laurie, Alex's best friend, and Sol actually liked each other. Even though Sol kind of loosened up on Alex, he can still be very insulting and sarcastic, so when it met Laurie, it was a real surprise when they both actually like each other. Even though I now know that Sol is trying to teach Alex a lesson by being tough on him, I would expect him to be tough on Laurie too, and when he was calling her "sweetie" it really caught me off guard. Notes From the Midnight Driver is full of surprises, know I just hope that Alex will really like Laurie!