They Cage the Animals at Night

Jennings drives with Mr. Frazier to his house, which is in a rich, gated neighborhood. Mr. Frazier’s mansion is opulent and impressive, with a boat parked in the driveway. The housekeeper, Martha, greets Jennings and shows him to his room. Everyone is remarkably kind to him. Jennings’ room is stunningly luxurious, with his own en suite bathroom and a bathtub. Jennings has never seen anything like it.

At dinner, Jennings meets Mrs. Frazier, who is abrupt with Jennings, and Mr. Frazier rebukes her. Their son Donald sits across the table from Jennings. Donald is about 15 years old, dirty, and disheveled. Mr. Frazier is disappointed with Donald’s behavior, while Mrs. Frazier defends him, and this is clearly their standard family dynamic. Jennings is confused why Martha does not eat at the table with them. At night, Jennings realizes that he can no longer to see Doggie or Sal, and he laments the loss of them, even temporarily.

At four o’clock the next morning, Donald takes Jennings fishing with him at Mrs. Frazier’s direction. Donald is rude with Jennings, and he hardly helps him fish at the pier. Jennings naively does not notice. Donald catches a tiny sand shark and keeps it after Jennings begs him. Jennings catches a bigger fish, and Donald tricks him into saying that he caught it. Jennings agrees to say that he caught the tiny shark.

At school, he tells the other children that he caught a shark and has it in a pail. The children laugh at him and make fun of him mercilessly. After class, Jennings picks up a bag of extra clothes and Doggie, which George had dropped off for him. Jennings goes to meet Sal at the bus to tell him that he cannot take his bus anymore. When Jennings cries, Sal comforts him and says that he should just meet him here whenever he can. Jennings agrees to meet him outside his bus every day. They talk daily thereafter, and Sal understands Jennings’ feelings about everything with the Fraziers. At dinner, Mr. Frazier says they must throw the shark back, and Jennings realizes that Donald tricked him.

One day Jennings is gifted fancy but used clothes from the mothers of the other children at the school, at the request of Sister Gerard. Martha is proud of Jennings in his new outfit, and she calls him her baby. Sal is even more proud to see Jennings, but the other children at the school make fun of him for wearing their used clothes. Jennings gets in a fight, and he tears open his lip and his wrist, bleeding profusely. Sal rescues him from the gang of children. Jennings whispers that he loves him but too softly for Sal to hear. At Mr. Frazier’s house, Martha runs down the driveway to him shouting, “My baby! My baby!” (157). She yells at Mr. Frazier, telling him it is his fault for not taking care of Jennings and buying him clothes himself. Mr. Frazier apologizes and agrees to take him to buy clothes.

Mr. Frazier buys Jennings new clothes as promised, and Jennings returns to school a week later. Jennings is prepared to not speak to anyone except Sister Gerard, but Sal advises him to not be bitter. Jennings reluctantly talks to a student named Eddie who apologizes to him, and they become friends. Others later apologize, and he becomes more accepted by the other children.

One day Sister Gerard sends a note home for Mr. Frazier. Mr. Frazier reads it and announces that Jennings is going home the next day. Martha hugs him and says she is “goin’ miss her baby” (161). As he packs his things, Mr. Frazier tells Jennings that he knows he caught the bigger fish. Martha sits with Jennings in the bed and tells him she wishes that he were her little boy. She will always be there for him if he needs her.

George accompanies Jennings home on the bus. They have moved to a new but smaller apartment. He will keep taking the bus with Sal every day to school. He meets his mother at the new apartment, and she cries when she sees his stitched-up wound from the fight. His room is tiny, and he shares it with Larry and Gene. When Jennings says he had a good time with the Fraziers, Larry tells him, “It’s not so hard to think of living someplace else” (166), as he once thought of living with Mrs. Keys. Their mother tells Larry to go to the store, as always, and he complains that he is sick of living there. George has bought a television set, but when he stumbles in drunk, he makes them turn it off. The family fights constantly, and Jennings begins to see how dysfunctional his family actually is.

One day Sal somberly informs him that he is being transferred and can no longer see Jennings. They hug, and Jennings steps off the bus in shock. He cries and screams for Sal as the bus drives away, and he realizes that Sal is gone. Larry later chastises Jennings for making emotional connections with people because they always end up leaving. Jennings feels that he is right. Two days later, nobody remembers his birthday, and it “came and went without notice” (171). One day Larry, exasperated, packs his things in a shopping bag and runs away out the window in front of Jennings. Everyone blames Jennings.

That evening Jennings jumps out the window to run away as well, and he plans to find Sal. He gets Sal’s route information from the bus driver who replaced him, but Sal does not work again until for the next three days. After seeing a sign, he decides to go to the zoo. He sneaks in, walks around the animal enclosures, and hides in the bushes with Doggie. The next morning, he eats a half a bag of popcorn from the trash can at the zoo restaurant. A worker says he cannot stay waiting around without eating something, so he brings Jennings a full meal from the back of the restaurant. As the zoo closes, he hides back in the bushes. The next day he does the same, grabbing food from another trash can. He lies awake, thinking about how much better things used to be at home.