Summary

In Chapter 13, Rufus recalls the first time he learned about his father. He was 12 and starting to get in trouble with the police. His mother asked Rufus if it would make his father proud to know his son ran around stealing things with bad boys. Rufus replied maybe his father stole too, to which his mother scoffed. So Rufus replies his father was too lazy to steal. That was the last time his mother whipped him. It made Rufus wonder why she would defend John Henry. He was mean, lazy, never held down a job and left after Curtis was born.

After the whipping Rufus’s mother tells Rufus never to talk about his father again, that he didn’t even know who his father was. Rufus asked her about his father every day for a week until she finally told him it was Ernie...