Wringer

Beans turns ten-years-old and can’t wait to get The Treatment from Farquar. He also can’t wait to be a wringer.

Palmer comes home to find Dorothy in his room. She’s been coming over often since finding out about Nipper. She comes over in secret, so Beans and the other boys don’t find out. Palmer is friends with Dorothy in secret and the boys in the open.

Dorothy is open about her disdain for Beans and the other boys and she and Palmer connect in ways that he could never connect with them. He opens up about his complicated feelings toward his father. He wonders how his father can be such a nice guy and also a shooter. Palmer also finally admits, for the first time out loud, that he doesn’t want to be a wringer. He feels himself growing closer to Dorothy. She makes him “feel floating” (127), like the weightless feeling he felt when he first learned to swim, and she allows him to feel trust.

Palmer is hanging out with the boys when suddenly Nipper lands on his head. He immediately pretends to be shocked and shoos his pigeon away.