Maniac Magee

Days later, Maniac meets two eight-year-old boys from Two Mills named Russell and Piper who are hiding in another cabin. They have run away from home and plan to go to Mexico. Concerned for their safety, Maniac lies and claims that they have won free pizza but must go back to Two Mills to claim it. He says that he will show them a shortcut to Mexico if they go back with him, and they agree. Maniac uses his prize for untying Cobble’s Knot to get pizza for the boys. After eating their pizza, they run into John McNab, the boy who once pitched the frog at Maniac, and Maniac discovers that the boys are McNab’s little brothers.

When Russell and Piper find out that Maniac is the boy who bunted their brother’s frogball, they laugh at their brother, making him angry. To appease him, Maniac lies and tells them that McNab also threw a “stopball” that Maniac couldn’t hit. The McNabs invite Maniac to their home, which is a filthy mess. They live with their father, George, who is neglectful and racist and has an alcohol addiction. McNab’s friends, the Cobras, arrive. Maniac tries to clean up a little as he watches Russell and Piper play “war” by shooting toy guns at imaginary East Enders. Remembering the Beales and Grayson, Maniac questions his choice to be here with the McNab family.

Maniac stays with the McNabs, and each week he uses pizza to bribe Russell and Piper into going to school. The boys are enjoying the fame of being friends with the legendary Maniac Magee. Soon, instead of pizza, they demand that Maniac brave Finsterwald’s yard to get more attention. Maniac agrees, and kids gather in fear to watch. Maniac extends the deal by knocking on Finsterwald’s door in exchange for the boys going to school for two weeks. The door opens and closes, but Maniac remains calm and alive, much to the shock of the gaping kids.

Throughout February and March, Russell and Piper demand that Maniac accomplish more feats of agility in exchange for their agreement to keep attending school. They expect him to perform stunts such as stone-throwing, rail-running, and fence-climbing. All of these activities add to Maniac’s legend and make the McNab boys more popular for being the ones to push him to new heights of heroism. Maniac enjoys the challenges and feels proud for getting the boys to go to school. Then one day, they challenge him to enter the East End.

In April, Maniac accepts the challenge, and kids gather on Hector Street to watch. Russell and Piper try to take back their challenge, but Maniac isn’t afraid. Once in the East End, he runs into Mars Bar. They trade barbs until Mars challenges Maniac to a race. During the race, Maniac isn’t sure if he should try to win, because he fears the consequences of beating Mars. Still, Maniac eventually wins, running backwards at the end to show off. He immediately feels ashamed, and Mars protests the win. Maniac flees, embarrassed, and finds himself at the Beales’ house once again after running into Hester and Lester.

The next day, after his reunion with the Beales, Maniac goes back to the McNabs’. Russell and Piper were worried about Maniac and are happy to see him. Maniac finds George and John McNab building a pillbox, a type of cement fortress used in war. They have been preparing their house for the race war they believe is coming, nailing wood and bars over the windows as well. John tells Maniac that Black people from the East End will revolt and kill the white people in the West End, but Maniac can’t believe it; he is disgusted with the McNabs.

Maniac runs to clear his mind. When he hears the Pickwells’ dinner whistle, they welcome him into their home for the evening, and he reflects on how similar the Pickwells are to the Beales. Later, he returns to the McNabs and tries to bribe Russell and Piper into going to school again. However, when May arrives, the boys still want to run away. They get into trouble around town, which frustrates Maniac, but he refuses to give up on them; he sees himself as their mentor. One day, however, they go too far by playing with Grayson’s old glove, and Maniac explodes with anger. Later, when they play war again, he yells at them, and they kick him out of their house. Maniac sleeps at the park for a few days until the boys eventually find him at the library and beg him to come to Piper’s birthday party. He agrees but plans to bring someone.

Maniac arrives at the party with Mars Bar, an act that stuns both the McNabs and the Cobras. Maniac wants to ease the McNabs’ ignorance by showing them that East Enders are just people. He convinced Mars to come to the party by accusing him of being afraid to cross Hector Street, which of course Mars saw as a challenge. Before the party, they had dinner with the Pickwells, who welcomed Mars into their home like a member of the family. Maniac could tell that Mars enjoyed himself at the Pickwells’ as he impressed them with his jokes and dance skills. However, the McNabs are not as welcoming.

George sullenly leaves the room. Maniac gifts Piper a compass but says that he will keep it safe until school is over and will only give it back if both boys go to school every day. John and the Cobras watch silently as the boys play games with Maniac and Mars. The boys go in the pillbox and tell the other kids to play at being Black and white, but no one chooses to be Black. Suddenly a Cobra jumps down from a hole in the roof to scare Mars; the Cobras all laugh. The tension escalates as John and Mars get ready to fight, but Maniac intervenes, pulling a trembling Mars from the house. Mars explodes and condemns Maniac’s decision to bring him to the McNabs’ party before walking away. Maniac feels guilty and foolish, but he’s also proud of Mars for not letting his fear show. He decides that Mars must be good deep down.

As June approaches, Maniac sleeps in the park or the zoo and eats from scraps at the animal pens or at the Pickwells’. He reads in the library and plays sports with other kids. He runs in the early mornings and enjoys the town before people wake up, always avoiding the trolley trestle by the river. Despite the town’s deep social divisions, he feels connected to it, especially to the people who have been kind to him. Eventually, people let him sleep in their yards as a sign of acceptance.

In July, on several of Maniac’s morning runs, he senses someone following him. Several days later, he discovers that Mars is silently running near him. Weeks go by, and Mars runs closer and closer until eventually they are running side by side, still not speaking. One day, Piper runs up to them, screaming and crying, so they follow him and discover that Russell is trapped on the trolley trestle. He and Piper were playing on it, and now Russell is too afraid to get down; a trolley is honking at them. Piper pleads with Maniac to save him, but Maniac silently walks away, which stuns them all.

The next night, having asked Amanda Beale where to find Maniac, Mars finds him sleeping in the buffalo pen. He wants to know why Maniac walked away from the trolley trestle. As they walk around the zoo, Maniac tells him about his parents’ deaths and how being at the trestle made him feel like he was dying with them; it was like a nightmare. Mars admits that he knew it wasn’t because Maniac was scared. Mars tells Maniac that he saved Russell, and that both boys have become attached to him. He took them to his house where his mother fed them, and they all played games together. They even invited Mars to their house to play. Mars tells Maniac that his mother wants to meet him; he invites Maniac to his house, but Maniac declines, afraid of getting close to another family.

Later that night, Maniac is awakened again, this time by Amanda, who is angry because Mars woke her up and asked her to speak to Maniac. She demands that Maniac come home to her house. When he says that he can’t, she grabs him and pulls him from the pen, not taking no for an answer. Maniac relents, and they leave the zoo together with Mars. Maniac lets Amanda ramble furiously as he finally accepts that his home is with the Beales.