Let’s discuss “Wounds of War” and “Homecoming.” 

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Being Ten in the Summer of 1983 – Tuesday Teatimes

Bad Apple – Tuesday Teatimes

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As the hours pass with no sign of Bart, the family goes out searching the yard. 

Jory finds a scrap of Bart’s clothing and a board with a bloody, rusty nail sticking out of it.  Guess Bart’s crumpled in a heap somewhere, drawing his last breath, Jory figures.  What a death-obsessed little weirdo, right?

The younger boy is rushed to the hospital.

Jory says Chris shouldn’t be treating his own son.  It’s not ethical.  But since when has Chris been concerned about “ethics”? 

They give Bart penicillin, and he puffs up like the Michelin tire guy.  Jory is like, Wow.  Never knew an allergic reaction could be so serious! Oh, Jory. You are clearly a product of the ’70s and ’80s.

Chris drugs Cathy. He doesn’t need a hysterical woman getting in his way.

Bart’s 10^th birthday comes and goes, and he misses out on Disneyland. There’s some concern that he’ll need to have his leg removed.  Jory figures if he can just take care of Bart’s dog, everything will work out. 

Jory finds Apple chained up in the dark barn with his food just out of reach.  

The woman and her butler are on the patio.  They just happen to be discussing Apple’s condition.  How convenient.  So now Jory knows it was John’s idea to keep the puppy restrained.  John gives a weak excuse. He says he did this to keep the dog from going in search of his owner. Wouldn’t want him bursting through the hospital doors and dragging Bart out of his bed to rounds of cheers, like he’s Beethoven or something.

Some woman named Marta – who I assume is Corrine’s maid – has been receiving all the gossip from Emma as they chat on opposite sides of the wall.  So John knows all the tea on Bart’s medical condition.  Emma has nothing but good things to say about the couple she works for. John knows she must be full of it.

Jory steps forward and orders them to do better by Apple.  And stay away from his little brother!

Jory thinks, There! I’ve done my duty.  Let’s see how many days pass before he needs to intervene once again.  And act like the idea to do so only just occurred to him for the very first time.

***

Bart is going home.  He stared down a one-legged future and then walked away, all four of his limbs intact!

Daddy lets him know that it’s nepotism that’s getting him out of the hospital early.

Bart poo-poos the food made special for him. Later, he goes on a dramatic trek to Apple’s stall, 100% anticipating the discovery of the animal’s rotting bones.  He prepares himself emotionally for the sight.  What he does not prepare himself for is the discovery of Apple very much alive and frolicking about in the barn. 

Bart flips his lid. He could have lost his leg and/or his life, and it makes no difference to his dog!

He finds out from John that it was Corrine who looked after his dog while he was gone. And despite his best intentions, he can’t stay mad at her.  He is torn between two sides of himself – the side that promised to carry on an evil old man’s legacy and the side that enjoys telling a real doozy of a story.  The narrative-loving side wins out.  He tells his grandmother the whole scary tale of his journey through the valley of death and his miraculous return.  He says his father must love him because he saved his leg.  If he’d loved him less, he would have chopped it off himself.  

Bart finds out that his grandmother knows his stepfather well and can confirm that he is indeed the kind of person to love his younger son. I would like to add that she also knows from experience that it is possible to give zero hoots about your children and still allow them to keep both legs. 

Let’s discuss “Tales of Evil” And “Lessons.” *Correction to heading: Chapters 9 and 10.

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Someone Messed with the Wrong Big Brother! – Tuesday Teatimes

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Jory doesn’t understand wth is wrong with his little brother, so he decides to sit down with him and, in the most patronizing tone imaginable, offer to have a “man-to-man talk.”  Bart comes straight out and says his real father went up in flames like a p-e-d-o in a Wes Craven film one December night.  And that’s what’s up.  John Amos tells him the truth.  Others tell him lies about a doctor daddy who didn’t burn but was still a p-e-d-o, even so. 

Jory’s like, I’ve remained silent for too long.

He’s already confronted the neighbor lady on at least two separate occasions.  Yet he acts like he’s finally going to lay down the law and do what has to be done.

As he’s making his dramatic trek to the mansion next door, his mind fills with memories of early childhood.  He remembers a dark-haired man whose name was . . . what was it now?  No!  It couldn’t have been Bart!  Bart Winslow?  Why, that’s the name of his half-brother! 

We’ve been over this before.  Jory must have the memory of a flea. Yet he’s smart enough to use pretentious words like “noonday.”

What fourteen-year-old in 1983 would have used the term “frisking” to refer to a dog romping around?  Do we have Dad’s “Word of the Day” to thank for this highfalutin nonsense?

This time, when approaching the sinister property, he has to pass through a gate with an intercom system and everything.  Confronting the old woman has failed to yield real results in the past, but he’s determined that this time will be different! And to make it official, I suppose he needs to pass through an iron gate. 

The woman of the house tells him there’s nothing to fear.  Which pretty much means he should be terrified right about now.  

She goes into a long story about how she failed her children.  She says she made a mistake marrying their father, but she thought there was no other man for her.  Only to discover with time that there actually was another man out there for her.  If only she had waited a moment.  Oops.  But it was too late, and she was stuck with these kids.  I mean, seriously? What’s a woman to do?

She wants to know what his opinion is on parents who kill their kids. Not first-degree murder but the unintentional kind. At most, voluntary manslaughter!

He’s like, What a psycho!  Buh-bye!  Oh yeah, stay away from my brother. 

So, she shows him an old portrait of herself. Jory, recognizing a face much like Cathy’s, reacts in the same way Susan reacted in the 1961 version of The Parent Trap upon seeing a picture of Sharon’s mother.

Jory is in major denial. He’s like, You’re just another blond with blue eyes!  Who can tell any of you ladies apart?

He decides to ask Emma to spill his family’s tea.  But Emma is like Verbena. What’s with all of the allusions to The Parent Trap in this book?

She’s like, Nope, not saying a single word about anyone else’s business.  She’s here to cook and clean and that’s it!  Now if she could just find some fried chicken to serve that brat who calls himself Jory’s brother.

Jory spends much of that night searching for Clover, who has wandered off. Bart is acting strangely, talking about having recently shot a wolf.  Clover?   Who the h e ll would have given this kid a gun?

Eventually, Jory gives up the search. 

His parents are in bed, talking about how they’ve got the worst secrets anyone can ever imagine.  What if the boys find out?  Somehow, they don’t even notice Jory standing nearby, listening to everything.

So Jory has no idea wtf he’s supposed to do now.  His parents are liars.  Bart is so nutty, he’s a walking allergen.  And Clover’s no doubt deader than disco. 

Maybe one day he’ll know how to put his teen angst into words.  In the meantime, he just needs Dad to give him a few more vocab lists.

***

Bart is beginning to resent John Amos, who continues to force him to read Malcolm’s journal.  Bart finds the passages wordy and confusing.    Methinks his father has been slacking off on the vocab lessons!  Or maybe he’ll get to w-a-n-t-o-n and h-a-r-l-o-t soon enough.

The next day, Bart works some more on Clover’s doghouse.  He bangs himself up enough that he starts to feel pain.  Just like Pinocchio, he’s on his way to becoming a real boy!

Later on, Bart’s pretending to crawl around in a jungle, and he overhears his parents arguing about the upcoming visit with Daddy’s crazy mother in Virginia.  Chris wants to go see her. Cathy’s like, You go ahead and do that. And maybe I’ll just hop a plane to New York with the kids.

Cathy and Chris also hint at a shameful family secret.  Chris is convinced that if word ever does get out, the brothers will give ‘em a pass.  Bart is like, Fat chance. Chris sure does overestimate his younger son’s ability to empathize with an I n c e st u o u s r a p i s t.  Even forgiving a two-year-old girl for merely existing is a huge ask for this little punk.

The following day, when Emma calls him in to dinner, he doesn’t respond.  He smells something nasty and traces it to Clover’s dead body.  Now his family is probably gonna think he’s a dog killer.   And guess who won’t be needing a crudely built doghouse after all? 

Momma thinks Bart is ignoring her because she smacked him earlier for accidentally filling up the kitchen with detergent suds while trying to help the housekeeper with the dishes. How’s that for gentle parenting? Sounds like Momma has anger management issues.