How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I told Mam I tripped over a curb trying to get home before dark. I didn't like to Mam very often because I knew she would catch me quicker than most grown-ups. (3.124)
Victor doesn't want to tell anyone about how he passed out from trying to talk to Mr. Spiro—not even Mam. He has enough people in his life hovering over him without bringing in another cause for concern.
Quote #2
Mam usually let me finish my sentences no matter how long it took me, but she was ready to get on to me but good.
You know you're not supposed to be hanging 'round that man.
s-s-s-s-I ran in-s-s-s-s-to him in s-s-s-s-alley and -
Don't you be running into him. You hear me? You best be running the other way. (4.20-23)
Yikes. How is Victor ever going to tell Mam that Ara T took his knife? She'll obviously be pretty ticked off when she finds out, especially since he's promised her a thousand times over that he won't go anywhere near the junkman.
Quote #3
The first thing Mam would do if anything went missing in the neighborhood was to say she was going to check out Ara T and his junk cart. The reason I have my new Schwinn Black Phantom is because my old one with the big shiny headlight on the handlebars was stolen one night when I forgot to roll it in the garage. A while later Ara T showed up with a pushcart with new wheels on it. (4.27)
It's pretty obvious that Mam doesn't trust Ara T at all. Whenever something is stolen or lost, she just assumes he's the culprit—and a lot of the time, she's right. Even Victor's fallen victim to Ara T's thieving ways in the past.
Quote #4
If that Greaser Charles was Mrs. Worthington's cousin then I was a monkey's uncle. When grown-ups lie to kids they don't even try very hard. They think we're too dumb to know the difference. (4.64)
Victor can see through all of the lies that adults tell him—especially when he runs into that strange man at Mrs. Worthington's house. Dude doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's not supposed to be there and that Mrs. Worthington is probably cheating on her husband with him. He totally underestimates Victor's ability to see the situation clearly.
Quote #5
Ara T would have to knock off from his junk collecting sometime and I could follow him at least until it got dark and maybe get to see where he kept his cart. He had to keep it somewhere at night. If he wasn't going to give me back my knife then I might be able to come up with a way to take it when he wasn't around. (4.69)
Victor decides to fight fire with fire. If Ara T is going to steal from him, then Victor's going to find out where he keeps his stash and steal the knife back. That's only fair, right?
Quote #6
I can't lie very well when there are a lot of words to say or things to explain.
If I could have told her the truth I would have said that my mind was bouncing back and forth between Mrs. Worthington and Greaser Charles and Ara T and Mr. Spiro the way the pinball in the machine at Wiles Drug Store bounces off all the different colored lights. The pinball wouldn't stop. (4.95-96)
It's not that Victor wants to lie to Mam and keep the truth from her. It's just that he's thinking about a lot of things in his life right now and doesn't know where to start. It's all a bit overwhelming.
Quote #7
How many times do I have to tell you to keeps away from that man? He ain't found no prize and never will. He has the devil full inside him. We're not talkin' about such stuff no more. (6.50)
Mam refuses to talk about Ara T because she considers him the lowest of the low. How is she going to feel when Victor confesses that he's been talking to Ara T—and that that's why his knife is now gone?
Quote #8
When I tiptoed back up the stairs I knew I had heard something important but I couldn't figure out exactly what. I kept going over what my mother said about stammering not running in her family and that made me wonder if stuttering ran in my father's family. And why he didn't say anything about that. (7.51)
When Victor finds out the biggest family secret that's been hidden from him—that his father isn't biologically related to him—he's more confused than angry. What does this mean for his family and for his relationship with his dad?
Quote #9
Mam may have called what happened to her busted-up face an Accident but there was more to it. Somebody had hit Mam with their fists. A bunch of times. Hard. Any kid knows you don't get a busted nose and two puffy eyes from falling down. (9.16)
Mam can see through all of Victor's lies, but he can see through hers, too. Go team. When she comes back with a messed up face, he knows right away that she didn't get into an accident—someone beat her up and she's lying about it so that he doesn't worry.
Quote #10
I went up to the guy that ran the booth and told him that Mam was going to have to go back to her home in California and I needed a picture to remember her by because she had nursed me back to health after me being about to die. I stuttered up a storm when I was telling the tale and didn't even have to make up what kind of sickness I had or why Mam had to come all the way from California. The guy took it hook and line and sinker as Rat liked to say. (12.37)
Normally Victor hates it when people pay attention to his stutter, but when he gets to the zoo, he uses it (as well as a tall tale that he makes up on the spot) to charm the photographer into taking a picture of him and Mam. Might as well use it to his benefit if he can, right?