Full of Beans

The next day at school, Beans’s friends discuss the prank false alarms the night before. Too Bad shows up in the shoes Beans secretly discarded, saying he found them in the trash can. Cem, the firefighter, looks exhausted and tells Beans he was up all night chasing haints, as all the alarms were pranks. Beans lies to Ma when he gives her the nine dollars he earned (he keeps one dollar for himself), telling her that he took the dress back to Mrs. Higgs and got her to pay for it. She calls Beans her “poor, sweet boy” (123), noticing his hurt feet and tending to them with bandages.

Beans goes to see the new Shirley Temple movie at the theater. After the show, he spies the haint leaving the balcony. He follows him through the dim streets until the man turns and asks why Beans is trailing him. Beans, shocked, sees that the man’s nose appears to be “melting off” (124). The man says that he has leprosy like a few others in the back lanes of Key West and that he cannot come out in the day or authorities will send him to a leper colony. Bring Back My Hammer is his cousin who lets him into the nighttime showings; he sees all the movies that come to town. It also turns out he once knew Beans’s mother, Minerva: “She was very beautiful” (124). They talk about movies and Baby LeRoy for a while. Beans realizes later that he did not ask the man’s name.

Beans sees Avery painting Nana Philly’s house and warns him how mean she is. She does not answer the door when he steps up to deliver her laundry. Beans sees her through the window, fallen and immobile. The doctor says she had a stroke. The cousins and Ma take turns spending nights with her. When Beans visits, she does not recognize him.

On a night when Ma is away at Nana Philly’s, the fire alarm goes off and keeps ringing. Beans opens the door to see smoke pouring from Pork Chop’s house. Mrs. Soldano is outside yelling; she is confused because the firemen are not coming. Horrified that his false alarms for Johnny Cakes caused the firefighters to ignore the bell, Beans runs to alert Cem and the other firefighters that the fire is real. When he returns to his street with the firefighters, other residents are in a panic. Beans helps Pork Chop carry all the Soldanos’ savable possessions to the cemetery.

The fire started when the Soldanos tried to burn kerosene-soaked rags to rid their home of mosquitoes; no one noticed when the pot in which the rags burned tipped. Pork Chop is emotional and unable to smile. The Soldanos must move in with Pork Chop’s cheerless grandmother; there is no lottery, ringing phone, or happiness in the house when Beans visits. Beans convinces Pork Chop to play marbles, but the Keepsies lose. When Beans’s mother tells him to go to the fire station, he follows her, expecting to be in great trouble. Instead, he finds a crowd of neighbors gathered, and Cem announces that he, Beans, is “a shining example of bravery and integrity” (138) for running to fetch them the night of the fire. He credits Beans with saving the rest of the nearby houses and gives him an honorary fire alarm key. Suddenly, music and snacks make for an energetic celebration, and everyone compliments Beans. He breaks away to go behind the firehouse to throw up.

Beans’s newfound status means free ice cream, ham sandwiches, and other treats from the businesses in town; a young child wants to shake his hand and claims Beans is a “real-life hero” (141). Guilt, however, eats away at Beans. He cannot enjoy the attention and begins to have nightmares. He goes to Nana Philly’s and sits with her while Miss Bea, the cousin tending to her, goes to the market. He spills the truth to Nana Philly, but she cannot speak. He asks if he should tell the truth: “Blink once for yes and two for no” (144), and she blinks twice.

Beans tries to attend a funny movie at the theater that features his favorite child actor, Baby LeRoy; Dot sits next to him and laughs aloud at all the funny parts. Beans, though, begins to weep: “I was the lyingest liar in the whole world” (145). He wants Dot to go away when she notices his tears, but she reaches over to hold his hand, and he hangs on to her hand until the movie ends.