And You're Sure About That?

Mr. Henry, who temporarily lives at Claudia's house, gives her and Frieda some money to go buy some ice cream. They girls decide on getting candy instead because they don't want the possibility of running into Maureen at the ice cream store. Mr. Henry's act may seem just a simple act of kindness, but, however, lending the money to the girls to get them out of the house is just his intention. The girls come home too early to witness Mr. Henry talking with some ladies who "...were the fancy women...that Mama...hated." When the ladies left and the girls asked him who the ladies were, "He laughed the grown-up getting-ready-to-lie laugh. A heh-heh we knew well." And, yes, he swiftly lied.

This demonstrates that Mr. Henry had already shown dishonesty because the girls could see through his actions and lies to the truth he tried to cover up. As implied before, this was not the only situation that Mr. Henry displayed sketchy behavior. It just simply foreshadowed graver events to come.

Even from the first display of dishonesty, I would not let someone stay at my house because they will likely do other things that could hurt my family. Well, this is exactly what happened. Claudia came home to find Frieda crying, and after prodding for the story, Claudia was told that her sister, who hasn't even reached puberty, was sexually abused by Mr. Henry. Frieda had the courage to swiftly tell her parents what he did and Mama/Papa bear syndrome quickly came into effect. When Mr. Henry arrived, "Daddy...threw our old tricycle at his head and knocked him off the porch...Daddy was cussing, and everybody was screaming...Mr. Henry...started running, and Daddy shot at him," etc. In other words, all chaos ensued.

However, Frieda wasn't crying because of all of that, she was crying because mama said she "might be ruined." The girls tried to picture what 'ruined' meant and they decided it was "Like the [fat]Maginot Line...[and] China and Poland...[but] they ain't fat....because they drink whiskey." From this we can see how children's brains quickly connect actions together that may not give the full story and so they end up with the wrong conclusion and the wrong course of action. Because whiskey apparently prevents you from being fat when you are 'ruined,' the girls decided to go out and find some. I can smell trouble.