Until They Bring The Streetcars Back

Cal forgets to set his alarm. His mom wakes him, and Cal leaps up, frightening her. At school, he feels safe, but he keeps seeing Little Jacob. He wants to call Riley, but he doesn’t know what he would tell him. If Gretchen was a dog, the Humane Society could help her, but Cal reflects that no one can rescue a kid treated worse than a dog.

Horace knows when Cal’s final regular-season basketball game starts, but they don’t witness the exciting one-point victory. Peggy is there, and she storms the court. Peggy is supposed to be sleeping over at a friend’s house, but she snuck out, and Cal hoists her onto her shoulders.

At Sid’s store, Cal steals more alcohol and hears Sid speaking to a “rich-looking” person about kickbacks and buses. He thinks that perhaps Horace is right: The bus business is corrupt.

Horace later mentions a kid who tried to jump on the fender of a streetcar, implying he knows something about Cal’s activities the night he stole the body of Little Jacob and ran from Otto. Going “bananas,” Cal tries to talk to his dad, but his dad harps on the importance of college and staying out of trouble before turning on Cedric Adams.