Toadboy decides that the answer to the cultural question of "why the broken gender" can be found in "The Clue of the Broken Locket," in which Nancy Drew discovers the secret behind a phantom ship and a girl's lost identity/treasure.

Toadboy applies Nancy Drew's deductive reasoning to the story:

1. Girls shouldn’t poke around in one another's affairs

"I'm surprised at you. That girl's affairs are her own business. Why should she confide in us?" page 11

2. If you want to stay thin like Nancy, don't order the pie

"First she [Nancy] stopped at the Marvin home and Bess came out carrying a suitcase. She was a very pretty girl, inclined to be overweight." page 5

and again, "The dinner was delicious. Bess could not resist topping hers off with pecan pie." page 8

3. Always check for a ring (subtext: girls all end up with a wedding ring)

"Nancy, though bewildered, decided to ask no questions, but she did notice the girl was not yet wearing a wedding ring." page 24

4. Hold off marriage until the money is right and travel opportunities abound

"I feel that Nico and I shouldn't get married while the lawsuit is pending. He has little money, what with paying off loans he got for his college education and his music instruction. I have a job in New Orleans, but of course when I marry Nico, I'll want to travel with him, and at present we just can't afford it." page 39

Toadboy felt this last point reaching forward through time. He knew most teen novels don't deal with this kind of issue. Teens don't consider marriage. Teens consider running away, doing drugs or harming themselves. "Most teen novels deal with identity and becoming a whole person, not with propriety in one's romances," Toadboy thought to himself. But there was another aspect of this portion of Nancy Drew's Mystery that Toadboy had been subtlety aware of in all his relationships but that he previously couldn't put his finger on, a conversation that had gone on between every woman he had ever dated and what Toadboy now saw as The Strategic Core, that rational place of checks and balances that could ultimately result in the rejection of Rock'n'Roll-boy Nico in the book, and had resulted, time and time again, in the rejection of himself in reality, and would repeat and repeat in the future should he not develop his own fully functional Strategic Core.

Options for developing a Strategic Core:
1. Study the game of chess - no, too logical. And lame - how functional are chess geeks?
2. Buy a personal calendar and keep notes - possibly, but potential for discovery - what's the name of that day planner society -the one that wants you to schedule time for "fun?"
3. Get on top of one's actions and quit being so damn "honest" - it looks bad to be a blubbering, emotional idiot, even if that's what your parents brought you up to be - strategy - STRATEGY - getting better....

[The Author interjects: This is a big moment for Toadboy. He is beginning to see the difference between emotional authenticity and a kind of reserved, functional subjective truth.]

Empty Buddha Girl is at a coffee shop studying the Tanakh.

Toadboy is on a lonely walk through the industrial side of town.

The Thinker is in a bookstore oggling saffron-robed monastics. He feels raw and alive.

Things That Won't Happen in the Epic of Toadboy

1. Empty Buddha Girl will never become the melancholy type.

2. The Author will never relate the traits of a particular character with Enlightenment.

3. No character will remain identical throughout the [narrative].

Empty Buddha Girl reads from the Tanakh:

"But the people would not listen to Samuel's warning. 'No,' they said. 'We must be like all the other nations. Let our king rule over us, and go out at our head and fight our battles. When Samuel heard all that the people said, he reported it to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, 'Heed their demands and appoint a King for them.' Samuel then said to the men of Israel, 'All of you go home.'"

I Samuel Chapter 8:19-22