Peekay Timeline and Summary

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• Peekay is sent to boarding school, where he's tortured so much by the other kids that he starts wetting the bed at night, earning him the name Pisskop or Pisshead. This name will become Peekay, one of the protagonist's first acts of independence.
• During the vacation back at home, a witch doctor cures Peekay of his "night water" problem—no rubber sheets required. He also gives him a chicken that becomes Peekay's best friend, Granpa Chook.
• Back at school the evil boys, led by the Judge, kill Granpa Chook. Peekay feels terribly lonely, and decides to take control of his life at the ripe old age of six.
• On his train ride home from school, Peekay is cheered up by the boxing champion of the railways, Hoppie Groenewald, who shows him that little can beat big: "First with the head and then with the heart, that's how a man stays ahead from the start" (7.3). He also is given the dream of becoming the next world welterweight champion.
• Peekay gets home and finds that his childhood has ended. His mother has become a born-again Christian and sent his Nanny away because she wouldn't convert. Peekay decides he will love anyone he wants.
• While he's sitting and thinking about life, Peekay meets an old man who will become his best friend, Doc. However, he will soon be ripped away from Peekay, too, when the South African government rounds up unregistered aliens. Peekay learns that society can be pretty stupid and racist during his time visiting Doc in the prison, and also learns to box along the way.
• Peekay realizes that rather than just ducking and hiding like he did in boarding school, he can learn to work the system. He learns this from his boxing coach, Geel Piet, who ropes Peekay into supplying the prison black market with tobacco, sugar, salt, and a mail service.
• Peekay's help for the prisoners gives him a reputation as being a sort of mystical being for the African prisoners, and they name him the Tadpole Angel. This title is sort of a weight on his shoulders, but he also loves the support of the people.
• Geel Piet ends up being killed by a prison guard, which is another violent death of a friend in Peekay's short life. He learns that the world is a rough place, and makes himself tougher and tougher by boxing and studying.
• At his next boarding school, where he's got a scholarship, he and his best friend begin making money through running gambling schemes. He's also a top student and undefeated boxer, and pretty much an all-around cool cat.
• On one holiday at home, Peekay and Doc go out into the hills and discover an untouched crystal cave. Peekay can tell that Doc wants to use it as his own tomb someday, and is really bothered by the thought of losing Doc. Even though he's used to horrible death, he's never known anyone to die of old age and can't stand it.
• Peekay accepts a fight against a black professional boxer, who turns out to be his old Nanny's son. The fight is symbolic for the people, and Peekay half hopes he'll lose so he can shake off the Tadpole Angel legend, but he is too used to winning. He and Gideon, the fighter, call each other brothers, and are sort of representative of Africa in Peekay's eyes.
• The same night that Peekay fights Gideon, Doc disappears and, of course, goes off to die in the crystal cave. Peekay is inconsolable, but goes to the cave and gets a sign from Doc. He believes that the deadly black mamba snake he sees is a message telling him what he needs to do.
• For the first time in years, Peekay loses at something. He doesn't get a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, and refuses to take a loan or a handout from his friend, which is part of his personal philosophy of being independent.
• Instead, Peekay heads to the copper mines to make his money for school in a year of horribly hard work. He gets hurt in an accident, and one of his friends at the mine dies rescuing him. As he's recovering he meets the Judge, the old bully from his first boarding school, again, and fights him. He carves his initials into the Judge's arm, and walks away feeling like a new man.