It: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Eddie Kaspbrak drives into Boston behind the wheel of “the black '84 Cadillac he picked up from Butch Carrington at Cape Cod Limousine.” He thinks that he feels the onset of some sickness as he drives farther north, but Eddie knows that he is just scared. He looks in the dashboard and finds some silver dollars to pay for tolls. He remembers how one of his old friends used a silver dollar to save their lives, though he cannot remember which. He is starting to remember things, such as how he loved Bill Denbrough. He recalls how it had been Bill’s idea to build a dam in the Barrens. Their “baby dam” got destroyed by Victor Criss. Then, they meet Ben Hanscom and build a dam so well that they get into trouble with Officer Nell.

Eddie recalls how Ben shows them how to flood out the whole Barrens, if they want to. Bill says that he also called Richie Tozier and that Stanley Uris, whom Ben does not know, may want to help. Bill confirms that Eddie has his aspirator and Ben asks if the chocolate milk trick worked on Eddie’s mother. Indeed, it did, Eddie tells him. Ben prompts the boys to take their shoes off and Eddie can hear the voice of his mother, warning him against having wet feet. Eddie reluctantly takes off his shoes, hearing his mother’s voice grow fainter in his head.

Bill and Eddie set one of the boards across the stream. They place a second board two feet away from the first. Ben adds rocks and “muddy gook” from the streambed. The rocks and mud take the place of cement. Ben gets a third board and places it against the downstream board. He explains it as the strut that will handle the remaining water pressure. The boys watch as the two boards that form the base of the dam creak a little but do not move. They are stunned by the ingenuity. They then sit on the bank eating and not talking much as they watch “the water stack up behind the dam and sluice around the ends of the boards.”

Eddie then asks Ben what his mother said about his appearance when he got home after the fight with Henry Bowers. Ben says that she was out grocery-shopping, which gave him time to wash up and throw out his clothes. He explained the bruises as the result of falling, saying he was overexcited for the last day of school. Ben stands up, noticing that the current is eroding the fill. He suggests that they use chunks of sod to replace it. Suddenly, they hear a voice. They turn to see Richie Tozier and Stanley Uris.

The five boys hang out into the afternoon. Richie offers cigarettes. Only Ben and Bill take one. Richie is known for having about a dozen different voices he uses. His ambition, he tells Eddie, is to become the world’s greatest ventriloquist. His friends, however, are unimpressed by his voices, which always sound like Richie. This is not to say that he could not be funny, but when Richie throws his voice, it does not go far. His friends are simply too kind to tell him the truth.

Ben introduces himself to Tozier. Richie introduces Stanley and says that he is a Jew who, according to Victor Criss, killed Christ. Stanley jokes that that must have been his father. Richie is amused. The boys then proceed to work on the dam for another hour, with Richie following Ben’s directions. Every now and again, he lapses into one of his voices. They use a car door, a corrugated piece of steel, and a stack of tires as the next stage of the dam. It is backstopped by a huge sloping hill of soil and stones. While the boys relax, Bill tells them about the winking photo of George.

Eddie quietly thinks of his own strange story of a leper on 29 Neibolt Street who offered to perform oral sex on him. On Saturdays, when Eddie can find no one to play with, he goes to the trainyards on his bike. One day, a trainman flings a box at him containing four lobsters. His mother receives the box with delight, but Eddie refuses to eat one of the creatures. He hates how they slither inside the box and click their claws. Instead, he goes to his room to read.

In other instances when Eddie goes to the trainyards, there are hobos and tramps. Often, they are drunk and want a cigarette. Sometimes, they are missing fingers. One day, a creature crawls from under the house on 29 Neibolt Street one day and offers “to give Eddie a blowjob for a quarter.” The hobo’s nostrils appear to be eaten away and yellow puke is stiffening on the front of his “old green flannel pants.” The leprous hobo then offers to perform the act for free. Eddie mounts his bike and takes off, but finds the hobo not only chasing him but gaining on him. Finally, when he flashes past Church School and goes through the Route 2 intersection, the hobo is gone.

Eddie keeps the story about the hobo to himself for a week before telling Richie and Bill one day while they are reading comic books. Richie explains that the hobo probably had syphilis and incorrectly explains how one contracts that disease, as told to him by Vincent “Boogers” Taliendo.

Eddie goes back to 29 Neibolt Street and looks under the porch. There is no one there. There are no hobos, but there are signs of them, such as empty liquor bottles and cans. A face appears in the cellar window. The skin of its forehead is split open. Its teeth poke out from sagging, livery lips “in a sneering ring.” It shoots a hand through the broken window pane. The hobo is wearing a silvery suit and introduces himself as Bob Gray. One of Its hands reaches Eddie’s shoulder and Eddie screams. Eddie reaches the end of the porch and the hobo crawls out. Its tongue drops from Its mouth and stretches to about three feet. Eddie races for his bike and wonders if he is having a nightmare. The leper again whispers for a “blowjob” and tells Eddie to bring his friends. That night, Eddie awakes in bed with a start, hearing the voice of the leper and closes his hand around his aspirator.

Richie is stunned by Bill’s story about the winking picture of George. Eddie is then prompted to share his own story about 29 Neibolt Street. Ben then tells his story about seeing the clown on the frozen Canal. Richie thinks that Ben dreamt about the floating balloons. The others ask if Richie has ever experienced anything out of the ordinary and he says that he has not. Stanley is the last with a story, though he struggles to tell it. Just when he starts to, “the whisky-roughened tones” of Officer Nell interrupt.