Chapters 5-8 Summary

Chapter 5 looks back to 1958, when Ma takes the boys to the movie theater. Bored, Thomas worries about his new teacher while Dominick daydreams of a kinder father. Afterwards, after ice cream sodas, Ma splurges on a religious painting, and on the bus ride home, they are scared by a dirty, crazy man. Ma forbids telling Ray, who at dinner beats Thomas for being a "namby-pamby."

Chapter 6 brings Dominick home, needing to get Thomas out, and to get even with Robocop. He ignores phone messages, accepts that he has acted like a jerk, and recalls first meeting Joy at a gym with his friend Leo, whom he tries unsuccessfully to call for commiseration. He listens to phone messages from Lisa Sheffer, assuring him that Thomas is fine. It is too late to reach her. In Chapter 7, Dominick and Joy quarrel, he recalls...