Olivetti

Ernest goes to the pawn shop after school to look for Olivetti and Quinn, but he sees the pawn shop owner, Mr. Corrie, speaking to a police officer who is investigating the theft of the typewriter. Quinn pulls Ernest away and reveals that she left Olivetti typing away beneath a blanket in a park. She hands Ernest a thick packet of typed pages, a few of which she has already read. She tells him about a poem that Beatrice wrote for someone named Brian Branson. In an online search, Quinn found a Dr. Branson nearby. He is accessible by the number 12 bus. Ernest assumes that Dr. Branson must be the therapist whom his mother arranged for him to see a few days ago. Quinn suspects that Dr. Branson may have been his mother’s therapist; Ernest is surprised and never knew that his mother was in therapy.

Olivetti keeps typing tirelessly beneath the blanket, which Quinn called a fort before she left. This situation reminds Olivetti of the blanket forts that the Brindles used to create and call their own “Narnia” when the children were small. They would fight over who got to carry Olivetti to Narnia. Once, they dropped him, and Felix got out his toolbox to perform “surgery.” Olivetti was easily fixed; at the time, Beatrice commented that Olivetti was the strongest among them, and Felix said that they could endure anything by “sticking together” (133).

Ernest and Quinn arrive at Dr. Branson’s office and ask for him. The receptionist tells them that a parent must make an appointment before either of them can be seen. When the doctor comes out, Quinn asks if he is Beatrice Brindle’s therapist, and he says that she is not in therapy with him but that he had been expecting to hear from her about next steps in her treatment. When Ernest sees Dr. Branson’s stethoscope and spots a “Cancer Support Group” pamphlet on the table (136), he realizes that his mother’s cancer has returned.

Olivetti waits for Quinn; this reminds him of waiting for the Brindles to return from a vacation to the ocean years ago. When they finally did, he recalls Beatrice acting differently. Eventually, she gathered the children in the kitchen and told them that she was sick. Arlo naïvely ran for Felix’s toolbox, believing that mechanical repairs would fix his mother.

In the present moment, Ernest flees the doctor’s office, unable to answer Quinn’s many questions. On top of the fear that comes with his sudden understanding of why his mother left, he feels foolish for having trusted Quinn. When she tells him that she was only “trying to be a good friend” (144), he tells her that he does not need friends.

Olivetti recalls the years in which Beatrice was sick and in treatment. She lost weight and used the Narnia blankets and pillows for support on the couch. Stacked pill bottles resembled a “castle,” and the family’s bills accumulated. She tried to make a game out of spelling her medicines, and the children and Felix coped by concentrating on the routine of school and work. They endured this way throughout Beatrice’s three years of treatment.

Now, Olivetti feels the blanket being lifted and sees Ernest. Olivetti has a bad feeling about where Ernest is taking him next.

Ernest returns Olivetti to the pawn shop and leaves him on the step outside. He feels that the typewriter is close to his mother and that neither Olivetti nor Beatrice needs him. He leaves, immediately feeling guilty.

Olivetti tries to communicate with Ernest as he walks away, but because Olivetti has no paper, Ernest cannot understand his words. Mr. Corrie discovers Olivetti when he is locking up the shop and returns the typewriter to the shelf beside Remi. Olivetti explains to Remi that he and Ernest did not find Beatrice; instead, they discovered something “far worse.” He tells Remi that Beatrice was sick for three years and has been healed for only one year. Remi asks about the experience of talking to humans, and Olivetti says that it felt like he was something “more than just [himself]” (156); now, though, he realizes that this feeling was fleeting and false.

Officer Dimas is in Ernest’s apartment with Felix, waiting to question Ernest about the pawn-shop theft. Ernest tells the officer that he returned the typewriter; when the officer warns him about lying, Ernest yells a second time that he returned Olivetti to the shop. When the officer leaves, Ernest’s father lectures him about stealing, skipping school, and shouting at a police officer. His sister and brothers gather and begin to bicker with one another.

Ernest cannot bring himself to tell them what he learned at Dr. Branson’s office. In his room, he looks briefly at Quinn’s notes on his mother’s first few pages of writing and suddenly realizes how invested Quinn is in helping him. Wanting to disappear, he pretends to be asleep when his brothers come in.

The pawn shop is more crowded than usual because of the police visit the day before. Olivetti is horrified to be purchased by Callum Kino, an artist with a face full of piercings. Olivetti sees Callum’s art when the man shows it to Mr. Corrie on a large cell phone; his art consists of dismantled typewriter pieces roughly formed into the shape of a human. Olivetti realizes that Callum intends to use him for parts.

Because Felix has taken an early meeting at seven o’clock in the morning, the four siblings sleep in past the start of school. Adalynn tries to pressure her brothers to get out of bed. Ernest does not even want to change his clothes, which he has been wearing for three days. As Adalynn and Ezra argue about their responsibilities, Quinn calls Ernest to tell him that Callum Kino has bought Olivetti. Horrified, Ernest knows that he must try to save the typewriter.

Olivetti now finds himself surrounded by spare steel pieces on shelves in a warehouse. He yearns to go home to the Brindle apartment; he recalls how the children created welcome decorations for Beatrice after her first long hospital stay. After many more stays, though, her returns from the hospital became a pattern. Suddenly, Callum enters, picks up a pair of pliers, and approaches Olivetti.

Ernest is nervous and jittery as he rides the bus to Callum’s studio. He worries that he will be too late to save Olivetti and feels intense regret for returning him to the pawn shop.

As Callum stands ready to pull Olivetti apart, Olivetti recalls Beatrice’s phone call from her physician, in which she learned that she was cancer-free. Everyone in the family rejoiced except Ernest, whose emotions were too complicated to allow him to feel joy. The Brindles allowed themselves to return to their busy lives. Beatrice began using the laptop, but Olivetti did not forget what their lives used to be like.