Thinner Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vehicular manslaughter

Billy Halleck, a lawyer from Connecticut is charged with vehicular manslaughter before the events of the novel, having accidentally run over a gypsy woman in his car on the way back home with his wife, Heidi. Billy wins the case, though it isn't a fluke; the judge was on his side, and so was the cop who brought him in, deciding not to give him a breathalyzer test and not to take all accounts from witnesses. Despite the ordeal, however, his family is getting back on track. Heidi has taken an optimistic turn while Billy's daughter, Linda, although still receives taunts at school, is watching them pass. There's just one thing though - Billy is nervous about what happened to him after the trial. As Billy walked down the courthouse steps, he was approached by a distinguishable gypsy man with a rather unpleasant nose, and as he attempted to head to the street, the man caressed his cheek like a lover, whispering the word "Thinner" in his ear before receding into the crowd.

Billy and Heidi take a weekend trip to Mohonk and attempt the Labyrinth Trail, an extensive hiking path that they attempted to tackle on their honeymoon, and despite Billy's weight of 245, they manage to finish the route. They take their next day to a fair where Heidi comments that he must be losing weight, and she forces him to use a Wate & Fate scale, weighing him and giving him a small fortune for a quarter. He uses the machine and Heidi's prediction proves true; Billy dropped to 236. As she carries on down the way, Billy receives his fortune, a single word: thinner.

Answer: Dr. Houston

Billy becomes more concerned after three weeks when his weight loss totals 30 pounds, dropping him to 215. Acting on his wife's advice and his own fear and concern, Billy makes an appointment and visits his physician, Dr. Houston. Dr. Houston decides to perform some tests, and these come back stating that everything is a-ok. Quite simply, Billy is healthier than ever, although he is a bit overweight, and if anything, the recent bout of weight loss can only help him on the health side. Houston tells Billy that if he continues to lose weight at an alarming rate, more tests can be performed, and Billy tells the doctor that his mind is at somewhat better ease. As Billy proceeds home, he recalls a name that he has been thinking about since his court time, Richard Ginelli, a restaurateur and supposed gangster from New York who he is friends with, though not close friends.

For some reason, the name is one that he considers calling, but he doesn't know why. Billy continues to recall the day he had his accident, and he remembers his wife's part in the ordeal. While Billy drove down the street, Heidi had riskily put her hand down his pants before he hit the gypsy woman. He considers what may have happened had this not been done, but when he returns home and tells Heidi the good news from the doctor, he forgets about it.

Answer: Leda

Billy soon needs to buy a new belt, discovering that there aren't enough notches in his old one, and stepping on the scale that same morning, he discovers that he has hit 195 pounds. He heads to the courthouse to inquire about the male gypsy, who must have been somehow related to the gypsy he killed, and he discovers that Cary Rossington, the somewhat biased judge presiding over the case, hasn't been working for weeks.

Billy rushes over to the Rossington residence to speak with him but only comes across Leda Rossington, Cary's wife, who opens the door only after discovering that Billy has lost more than fifty pounds. Leda instantly knows that it was the gypsy's fault, and claims that she has ever since the gypsy came across her husband at a flea market, caressing him and mentioning a word she can't remember. A few days after this, Cary discovered a rough patch of skin on his chest and quickly assumed it would pass. The next day, however, it had spread, covering a fair portion of his torso. He also went to Dr. Houston about this, however the tests came back stating that nothing was wrong. Despite the results though, the patch continued to grow until one day, it covered most of his body, and Leda knew that the skin was turning to scales before her eyes. It wasn't long after that Cary went to the Mayo Clinic for further testing, though since then, she hasn't heard a single word, but she expects the worst. The last time she saw him, she claims that he looked like an alligator. She follows Billy to the door and forces him out, claiming that he brought this upon himself and her husband since he hit the old woman.

Answer: Police officer

Leaving Cary Rossington's house, Billy considers the options of more people being affected by the gypsy situation and he realizes that other than his wife, Duncan Hopely, the police officer who neglected to do his job in favour of his friend, Billy, would be the only person to consider for the situation. Before stopping by for an unexpected visit, Billy calls Dr. Houston regarding Cary, and he says that although outside assistance was required in his instance, the tests turned out fine during his stay at his office. Billy also inquires about Duncan Hopely, and as it turns out, he has been in to see Dr. Houston regarding a rather bad case of acne, which has been slightly recurring over Hopely's life as it was.

Discovering that Hopely had taken a few days off work because of 'the flu', Billy travelled to his house for a visit and was not initially welcomed. Describing his situation, Hopely let him inside and revealed that the gypsy had cursed him with a terrible acne, causing him to break out in numerous pimples and blackheads, and literally rotting his body away. Hopely tells him that he would kill the gypsy himself with his service pistol, but since his skin is melting away, he won't leave the house. Billy leaves, confused about what to do next.

Answer: Taduz

Heidi, concerned that Billy continues to drop weight (as he has now reached 156), speaks with Dr. Houston, who makes the decision that Billy should speak to the people at the Glassman Medical Clinic, though Billy feels that if nothing is done, he'll continue to waste away. Heidi sends Linda to stay with relatives and she sleeps in the guest room for the following week while Billy contemplates the situation. He has his firm, at his own expense, track down the gypsies, and he comes up with a bit of information about the band.

The man who approached him was Taduz Lemke, who is estimated at 106 years old, and evidently the woman that Billy hit was his daughter. He also has them track down the direction of their caravan in order to follow them. Shortly after, Billy discovers that Duncan Hopely has shot himself, and though Billy saw him in his malformed state, evidently the pimples seem to have receded since, possibly due to the fact that the curse ran its course. Duncan also calls Ginelli, his friend from New York, and merely mentions the situation to him. Ginelli invites him out for a bite to eat, but Billy leaves the invitee for another, more suitable time. Billy leaves a note for Heidi and heads out on the road in an attempt to find the gypsy caravan, and he drives north.

Answer: Maine

Billy begins his search by heading north along the coast, obtaining a list of 'happening' towns that are most active during the summer (at least two dozen of them along the coast) and visiting them in search of more information. All the while he is guided by his sources back home at the law firm, who have been feeding him small tidbits of information from their own informants.

Arriving in Old Orchard, Billy comes across a restaurant, whose employees instantly recognize Taduz Lemke from his photo. One man notes that decades earlier, he had come across Taduz in a darkened alleyway and the gypsy had referred to him by an old nickname that no one had known, proving to him that he in fact had powers. Billy also learns that one of the girls in the gypsy encampment had been Taduz' granddaughter, and the daughter of the woman that he hit. Billy then continues across Maine, through Bangor, and discovers that the gypsies had stayed on an abandoned, burned-out lot in the city. He contacts the realtor overseeing the lease on the property and through their conversation discovers that his own law firm and Heidi have been trying to track him down as well. He pays off the realtor and determines that they headed in the way of Bucksport. He finally catches up to the gypsies in Bar Harbor though, and makes his way alone to their camp to make things right.

Answer: Rom

Billy walks into the gypsy camp and immediately realizes that they expected him to show up. The gypsies awaken Taduz, who converses with Billy on the subject of his curse, saying that they are much different from the white man, and because of what he has done to his daughter, he needs to pay for his actions. Billy tries to reason, but they send him away, and when Billy refuses, Taduz' granddaughter, whose name is Gina, shoots a ball bearing through his hand with a slingshot.

Billy is carried out of the encampment and makes his way back to his motel where he calls Ginelli once again. Ginelli realizes the problem and sends his doctor to Maine to help him, keeping anonymity to prevent his wife from discovering his whereabouts. The doctor, Fander, puts Billy on minimal drugs due to his weight and tells him to start eating more. Billy notes that it won't help but takes the drugs anyways. Ginelli, appears the next day to help, realizing that he's in such a horrible condition, and after Billy tells the story, he vows to get vengeance for his friend at all costs.

Answer: He poisons them

Ginelli vows to get the job done and he comes and goes a total of three times, even forcing Billy to switch motels, before he comes back to tell his results to the wasting-away man. To begin, Ginelli took siege upon the gypsy camp at night, sneaking past numerous guards and poisoning the gypsies' dogs with strychnine and steak, then leaving a note saying that he was placing the 'white man's curse' on the gypsies themselves. On the way back, as the sun rose, Ginelli left his car behind and switched it for a Chevy Nova in order to maintain a cover and he hired a local to watch over the situation.

Unfortunately, the man was killed by the gypsies shortly after, having been shot in the head with a ball bearing. After burying the man and using his car, Ginelli continued onwards with a gun, making his way overtop the Gypsy encampment and opening fire. Although the gypsies nearly reached him, they were held back by the gunfire and Ginelli was able to escape without harm.

Answer: Into a pie

Ginelli continues his story, returning once more to the gypsy camp posing as an FBI agent investigating the shootings, then coming across Gina Lemke and attempting to harm her. He nearly blinds her with Pepsi after she realizes that he is working for her, and she manages to claw at him before he leaves. Finally he concludes his story saying that he has a contact in New York, and if they want the assaults to stop, they should call that number to negotiate. Taduz finally succumbs, according to this contact, and Ginelli takes Billy's frail self to a park in Bangor, leaving him on a park bench while he waits in the car. Billy doesn't wait long until Taduz arrives though and talks of what he calls Purpurfargade Ansiket, which, in Rom, is known as 'Child of the Night Lilies', and essentially it is the curse within him, a living thing which manifests itself and can not stop.

He tells Billy that he can take the curse off of him, and he reveals that to do so, he must place it within a pie, and in order to stop the curse from harming him, he must feed it to another person or else it will return to his body. He departs and places the beating pie by his side. Billy leaves with the pie and returns to Ginelli's car to find that his friend is missing, and all that remains is a severed hand on the driver's seat, filled to the wrist with ball bearings.

Answer: Heidi

Billy returns to the hotel and begins to eat, soon realizing that he is finally retaining the pounds that he once lost. He vows not to return to his original weight, saying that it may be a positive point of the experience. He calls home to tell Heidi he is returning and that they can commit him to the Glassman Centre if they wish, but that the problem was solved. He claims it was more of a psychological issue to cover up the truth though. As he begins to leave Maine, he sits next to the pie in the car, watching as it beats like a human heart. As he nears home, he reads in the newspaper that Ginelli's body has been found in a basement, killed by a high-caliber weapon.

Billy returns home and Heidi greets him at the doorstep. Although it is clear that she is willing to give a second chance to their lives together, Billy remembers that she and Dr. Houston had earlier tried to claim him as mentally unstable. Before they enter the house, Billy brings in the pie and leaves it in the kitchen for after dinner. Although she doesn't eat the pie after dinner, Billy rushes upstairs and listens from the bedroom as footsteps cross the kitchen to the counter, remove a fork and knife from the drawer, and a plate is left in the sink. He falls asleep knowing that his plan has worked.
The next morning however, after Billy weighs himself on the scale (and notes an increase in weight) he finds two plates in the sink, and realizes that Linda came home the night before to welcome her father home. Knowing that both Heidi and Linda ate the pie together, and that his plan to place the blame on his wife had failed, Billy cuts himself a piece of the gypsy pie and takes a bite.