Summary

The narrator continues to follow Jackie, and says that one afternoon Jackie watched as his stepmother May accidentally got her thumb caught in a meat grinder. She ran out of their house, leaving Jackie to cope with the shock of the experience. Jackie ran all through the neighborhood telling everyone he encountered about what happened. He would say "stepmom May cut her thumb off in the meat grinder!" and "just ground it up!" (9). The narrator invited Jackie in for dinner that night, but he could not stop repeating these phrases. The narrator's father was angry with Jackie, and Jackie left their apartment to continue telling people about what happened.

Families in the apartment building started getting frustrated and concerned about Jackie's behavior. It continued on into the evening, and the narrator says, "It was then that I understood. If Jackie understood, then or ever...