Summary

The Rivers apartment is overheated as usual in the winter. It gets as high as 85 degrees, and it's so dry, it's like being in an oven. It tires everyone and puts them all on edge. Weekends are the worst for the children, because there is nowhere to go but the Boys Club. Then, Christmas approaches, and because, she doesn't have enough money to pay off the bunk beds she had promised them, LaJoe decides to take the younger ones to see the windows downtown, something she had done with her own mother when she was small.

LaJoe ends up taking Pharoah, the triplets, her three grandchildren, and a friend of the triplets. With eight children in tow, she walks to Madison Street and hops the bus. The children are fascinated from the beginning by the tall buildings and the clean windows. When they arrive at State Street, they get off the bus where the people walking the streets become objects of fascination because of their expensive clothing. The children scream with delight at the two-foot high mechanical children in the windows. Timothy wishes he could go into the windows and live with the mechanical children. They walk from window to window, block to block, and Pharoah reads the text that accompanies many of the displays. Their last stop is the big Christmas tree. Tiffanie wonders if it is God's tree. LaJoe buys them all popcorn at Garrett's, a treat that her own mother had given her at Christmas. All the way home on the bus, the children say repeatedly that they had a lovely day and LaJoe, who is exhausted, must admit that in spite of her fatigue, she feels more energetic than she has in a long time. Pharoah has had a wonderful day, too, but he regrets that they didn't ask Lafeyette, who their mother thought would find such an invitation insulting, since he is older. However, Lafeyette is angry that he wasn't invited, and LaJoe has to remind herself that in spite of the responsibility he shoulders, he's still just a thirteen-year-old boy.

Lafeyette becomes very angry when he hears the news that Terence is going to prison for ten years. Pharoah is also troubled, but he doesn't vocalize his fears about his brother. It shows up in school with more daydreaming. LaJoe tries to give him reassurance about Terence, but Pharoah just tells her he's too young to understand how life really is. To add to the tension of her son being imprisoned for something he didn't do, Terence gets himself in trouble while out on bail. He is involved in another armed robbery, and this time, the police have substantial incriminating evidence against him. Terence, over the summer, had been determined to stay out of trouble, but as he had time to think, he rationalized that he was probably going to jail for something he didn't do. Then, he developed a tragic form of reasoning: if they were going to put him in prison for something he didn't do, he may as well do something to be convicted for. That's when the idea to hold up the Mazury Tavern was hatched. The police had fingerprints and an oral confession, and Terence's lawyer, Audrey, knows the prosecution has a strong case. What Terence has done angers Audrey, but it doesn't surprise her. She had hoped Terence would be different from her other cases. On top of this new problem, the mayor had called for increased caseload for all the public defenders, because he was running for office. So, there will not be time to prepare for a trial. She'll need to negotiate a shorter term with the prosecution.

Notes

Once again, this chapter is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, the children are allowed to be children when LaJoe takes them into downtown Chicago to visit the Christmas window displays. However, when they come home, reality sets in, and they must put aside their childhood and deal with the tragedy of Terence going to jail for a really long time.