51 pages • 1 hour read
And Then, Boom!
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Pages 121-164Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of emotional abuse, child abandonment, and trauma due to poverty.
Note: These pages contain the poems “The Crow,” “The Chimera,” “Casserole Surprise!,” “Shepherd’s Pie,” “Snapped,” “Around and Around,” “Take Him Off My Hands,” “Reeling in the Food,” “Fish Fry,” “Fly Free,” “I Get It Now,” “One Sweet Moment,” “Losing More of Grandmum,” “Mom and Me,” “Maybe It’s Like Basketball,” “The Kiss,” “Silence,” “The Balloon,” “Texting,” “Zipped Lips,” “Couldn’t Help But Hear,” “Doomsday’s Left Hook,” “No Reply,” “The Bag,” “Tangled Webs,” “Should Have Asked,” “Abandoned,” “Rescued,” “The Luckies,” and “I Can’t Even Feed Me.”
Pages 121-164 Summary
Joey doodles Mom as a crow pecking at Grandmum’s belongings. Mom tries to take the quilt, but Joey fights her for it. When Mom gets distracted by Grandmum’s jewelry instead, Joey sees her as “part butterfly, part crow, and mostly storm” (122) due to her unpredictable nature. He does not want to deal with her at all, but now she is all he has.
People bring so much food that they have to freeze some of it. Joey and Mom make a game out of guessing what they will find in each casserole. Joey offers to do the dishes in an effort to keep his mom happy and discourage her from leaving again. He cries as he eats shepherd’s pie that reminds him of Grandmum’s cooking, and he realizes that Hakeem must have used Grandmum’s actual recipe to make it.
When Grandmum’s SNAP card is declined, Mom flies into a rage and grumbles about having to feed Joey. When he suggests that she get a job, she gives him the silent treatment, and he realizes that he has made a mistake. She then insists on taking all their clothes and sheets to the laundromat, and Joey understands that she will be angry all day.
