How It All Goes Down
- It's 1958. Thomas and Dominick are eight years old and heading to the movies with their Ma.
- If you thought going to the movies now is bad with people talking and texting, try going to the movies in 1958—all the other kids there run and scream and throw things.
- After the movies, Thomas, Ma, and Dominick stop at the five-and-ten for an ice cream soda.
- Ma buys some (tacky) Jesus lenticular art to take home.
- On the bus, this creepy man with "a big lump on his forehead" (5.94) sits next to them and starts sniffing Ma.
- No one does anything, not even Ma.
- When they reach their stop, Ma and the kids get off and make for home as fast as possible; Ma says that her five-dollar Jesus saved them from the crazy man.
- That night at dinner, Ray, the kids' stepfather, notices Thomas chewing on his sleeve.
- His punishment: Ray tapes his hands together.
- Dominick wonders who his real father is, and hopes it's someone who wouldn't tape up his own son.