Al Capone Does My Shirts Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary

What about the Electric Chair?

  • Life is back to normal with Natalie at home. It's another school day, so Moose leaves the house and heads toward the boat.
  • Piper catches up to him and apologizes for making him meet her dad. She says that she was worried about Natalie, but now that Natalie is gone, there's no problem (except that Natalie's now back, which Moose decides not to mention).
  • Then Piper explains her little side project to Moose, saying it's not against the rules and that her dad wouldn't have a problem with it.
  • Piper clearly wants to be friends, but Moose is skeptical—he makes her swear to be nice to Natalie from now on.
  • Now that Piper has Moose's friendship, she pushes for his help with the laundry service.
  • Moose seems reluctant, but when Piper shows him a flyer advertising Al Capone, he straight-up backs out. No way, that seems dangerous.
  • Piper pushes until he agrees.
  • Piper stages a conversation about Alcatraz in class. The kids start asking all sorts of questions about the prison, and Piper and Moose make up all sorts of tall tales, like how they fry the prisoners alive to kill them.
  • The kids all snicker—they know that these stories are lies.
  • Before long, though, tons of kids have taken their shirts off from underneath their sweaters to be cleaned. Some kids are begging to bring things in tomorrow, but Piper strikes a hard bargain: today only.
  • Moose has a feeling that Piper's going to get caught for all this.