37 pages • 1 hour read
Neil GaimanFortunately, the Milk
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 32-56Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 32-56 Summary
The platform that Professor Steg and the father land on is a temple honoring Splod, the god “of people with short, funny names” (35). The people want to sacrifice the father and Professor Steg to their gods of harvest, but when the father holds up the milk the people fall to their knees, having recently heard the prophecy:
[W]hen a man and a spiny-backed monster descend from the skies on a round floaty thing […] if the man held up milk then we were not to sacrifice them, but we were meant to take them to the volcano, and give them, as a present, the green jewel that is the Eye of Splod (35).
On their way to the volcano, a man tells the father how lucky they are because the original prophecy says that removing the Eye of Splod will trigger devastating destruction of the land. At the volcano, Professor Steg is given the green stone and “nips” back up the ladder and to her time machine.
The boy interrupts his father here—questioning how a Stegosaurus could “nip” up anything. His sister chimes in, lamenting the absence of ponies in the story.
Their father continues: The original prophecy comes true. Angry, eyeless Splod causes the volcano to erupt. The balloon jerks up, making the father drop the milk, which lands on Splod’s head. As they watch, another identical balloon appears. A man descends the rope ladder and puts an identical green stone in Splod’s empty eye socket, stopping the eruption. The man then grabs the milk and hurries back up the ladder and into the hot air balloon which disappears.
The father is confused, but Professor Steg calmly inserts the gifted stone into the time machine and transports them into “The far, far future” (45), to a plain populated by colorful, clever ponies and the now extinct volcano, complete with its green eye. The father takes the green stone out of the extinct volcano and gives it to Professor Steg, who cautions him not to touch the two stones together—“if the same object from two different times touches itself, one of two things will happen. Either the Universe will cease to exist. Or three remarkable dwarfs will dance through the streets with flowerpots on their heads” (51).
To retrieve the dropped milk, Professor Steg zooms back in time to one week before they first arrive at the volcano. Professor Steg speaks to the Priest of Splod, giving him the “prophecy” that dictates their safe passage to the volcano and the gift of Splod’s eye exactly one week later. Having delivered the prophecy, Professor Steg zooms forward one week into the middle of the volcanic eruption during which the father drops the milk. The future father shimmies down the rope ladder, puts the green stone in Splod’s eye (stopping the eruption), and grabs the milk off Splod’s head. Future Professor Steg presses the button, and they zoom away with the milk.
Pages 32-56 Analysis
The story continues to explore the space-time continuum when the father and Steg time travel and secure the stone needed to return the father home. Gaiman uses absurdism and humor. Future Steg’s “prophecy” ensures that the father and Steg are gifted the original green stone:
When a man and a spiny-backed monster descend from the skies on a round floaty thing […] if the man held up milk then we were not to sacrifice them, but we were meant to take them to the volcano, and give them, as a present, the green jewel that is the Eye of Splod (35).
For a short time, Steg and the father have two of the same stone, from two time zones, allowing Steg an opportunity to explain what might happen if they touch. This foreshadows the climactic finale; the father will borrow the milk from his past self to bring the adventure to a close. Gaiman again uses humor and absurdism: If two of the same thing touch, the universe will end, “or three remarkable dwarfs will dance through the streets with flowerpots on their heads” (51). Gaiman uses humor to keep his story light for young readers.
The children are riveted by their father’s story. Their interruptions show that they are not concerned about the inconsistencies of time travel, but in the case of the young boy, the practicality of how a huge Stegosaurus can quickly climb a ladder, and, in the case of his younger sister, the absence of her favorite ponies. These interruptions, and the accompanying illustrations of the children, cereal box, and ponies, bring the reader back to the kitchen table and to the reality of the mundane setting: a father telling his children a story in their kitchen. Even though the father’s story is full of aliens, dinosaurs, and time travel, at its core it is a story about a “human father” trying to get back home to his children.
The phrase “Fortunately, […]” followed by the milk’s safe location runs throughout the story, reassuring the children that the milk is safe. In this section, the father loses the milk and changes the expression to “Unfortunately, I dropped the milk” in a comic play on the recurrent phrase (42). The only time during the father’s story that he expresses “gloom and despair and despondency” is when he drops the milk, devastated because he will “never get home. My children will never have breakfast” (44). This dramatic response about something as prosaic as having milk for cereal keeps the story light. It also suggests that the father is concerned about the deeper consequence of not getting home to his children.
The story features parallels. There are parallel universes in the father’s time-traveling story, as well as parallel stories being told in Fortunately, the Milk. The young boy is telling the story in the first person. He describes his father telling a story, also in the first person. In other words, two parallel stories are being told simultaneously.
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