Al Capone Does My Shirts

Mom doesn’t seem to react when Dad tells her. She just changes, grabs her purse and gloves, and stands by the door. She says that Dad can’t go with her—he has to be at work later. When Dad argues, Mom shoves him. Dad just quietly asks wide-eyed Moose to accompany Mom.

On the boat, Moose can only think, “Here we go again.” The Barriman School, the heat treatments, aluminum, and UCLA were all supposed to fix Natalie. Mom was particularly excited about UCLA, even though they shaved Natalie’s hair and “tested her like she was some kind of insect.” Natalie spent weeks rocking in her room, but Mom reminded everyone that UCLA could cure Natalie—if she had what they were studying. Ultimately, they said Natalie was “interesting” and told Mom to donate Natalie’s brain to science when she dies. After this, things got rough at home. Moose thinks that’s when Mom decided Natalie was going to stay 10 forever.

Now, Moose and Mom are sitting in Mr. Purdy’s office, and the headmaster tells them they’re only equipped to work with boys with challenges like Natalie’s, not girls. He suggests Deerham—an asylum—and tells Mom not to worry about semantics. Mom, though, compliments the school’s work and asks if there’s some way they can make this work. Mr. Purdy copies a phone number for Mom and hands it over. Mom takes the card but doesn’t get up. Moose is proud of his mom for getting what she can from Mr. Purdy, but he’s also angry. Mom will do whatever the card says—she’s sent away for voodoo dolls and read the Bible to Natalie for two hours per day. She won’t believe that maybe for Natalie, “there never is a happy ending.”

Mom asked what happened. Mr. Purdy tries to evade her question, but he says there was “a bit of a skirmish over a box of buttons and some unfortunate behavior.” He asks if Natalie is 10 and if she likes to get up early. Moose says she likes to watch the sunrise. Then, Mr. Purdy says he’s worked hard to form good relationships with the neighbors, so they can’t have a child who’s “overly vocal” here. Natalie, he says, screamed for an hour, and he says this is something he believes Mrs. Kelly, whose contact information is on the card he gave Mom, can help. Moose asks if they took Natalie’s buttons, but Mr. Purdy just says they can’t have a screaming child here. If Mrs. Kelly can help Natalie improve, they’ll consider admitting her in May.

After shaking Mr. Purdy’s hand, Mom leads Moose out to the waiting room. When Natalie finishes counting stitches on a needlepoint chair, Moose grabs her suitcase and Mom hustles Natalie out. Mom and Moose have had a lot of practice doing this.