When Trout arrives in Midland City, he piques the interest of Hoover; confused, Hoover demands a message from Trout; the author hands over to Hoover a copy of a novel that Trout had brought to use as source material for the speech at the Midland City arts festival. The novel purports to be a message from the Creator of the Universe; it explains that the reader—Hoover in this context—is the only individual in the universe who has free will and that all the other people are machines. Hoover interprets the novel as being factual and thus he believes that all people, other than himself, are artificial machines; he reacts to this idea by violently rampaging through Midland City; he severely beats his own son, his lover, and nine other people, before being taken into custody. While Trout is walking to the site of the festival, which has now been postponed due to Hoover's spree of violence, the Vonnegut character accosts Trout. Vonnegut identifies himself as the Creator of the Universe; he says that, out of all of his literary creations, he is sharing this information solely with Trout; and that Trout is being freed in the same way "Thomas Jefferson freed his slaves". The Vonnegut character disappears and somersaults "lazily and pleasantly through the void", while hearing Trout cry out the last words of the novel, "Make me young, make me young, make me young!"