Al Capone Does My Shirts Part 1, Chapter 20 Summary

Warning

  • The kids all slump back to their play spot, where Natalie continues to count her buttons.
  • Moose kicks a can and it lands in the middle of Natalie's organized rock collection. He rushes over to remedy the situation, but Natalie is frozen. The other kids come over to help but Natalie has disappeared to her own world, and she rolls herself into a ball.
  • After half an hour of this, Moose's mom finds them—she bends over Natalie and orders Moose to make the others leave. She's clearly embarrassed, and Moose tries to help her see that the kids were trying to help.
  • Moose's dad comes and carries Natalie home. Mom is a mess, and then, to make things worse, Mr. Trixle appears at the door to talk to Dad.
  • Dad comes back and tells Moose to follow him. They walk down to the dock together, and Dad questions him about the laundry service. Moose says that he wasn't involved, but this isn't good enough for his dad—he is angry Moose stood by without telling anyone about it.
  • Moose doesn't think it's fair that he's getting into trouble even though he wasn't involved. But his dad almost lost his job over this, and takes Moose's baseball gear away as a punishment. He tries to help Moose see that if he loses his job, he can't just move home—they won't have any money or anywhere to go.