They Cage the Animals at Night

Jennings enters a new children’s home, the Brooklyn Shelter, an ugly building with hideous tile and metal doors. He is led into a large dormitory that reeks of urine and bug spray and is assigned bed number 51. The shadows of the bars on the windows are cast across his bed. In the morning in the dining room, he eats “a lump of lukewarm sticky stuff” (195), bread, and butter. The boys and girls play in separate playrooms that open out onto a yard that is enclosed by a chain link fence with barbed wire.

As he stares at the barbed wire, Mark, his old friend from the Home of the Angels, yells to Jennings. He tells Jennings that he is in the Brooklyn Shelter, a home that is not run by nuns. Mark had been sent to the hospital and later ended up here. Jennings shows him Doggie, and Mark shows Jennings the angel cutout he gave him when they said goodbye before. They agree to be brothers. Mark does not know what his last name is, and they agree that his last name can be Burch, same as Jennings.

Unlike at the other homes, Jennings is allowed to attend school, which is normally reserved for orphans. Jennings asks if he can stay with the Fraziers or with Sal, and a woman explains to him that if anyone actually wanted him, he would not be there. Mark later calms him down, and Jennings realizes that neither Sal, Martha, nor the Fraziers probably know that he is there. Jennings tries to convince Mark that Sal will come and take them both with him, but Mark frustratedly refuses to believe it. Mark appears to have a fever, but he says he is fine. He says that if he is sent back to a hospital, he will never see Jennings again.

At lunch one day, Mark faints and falls out of his chair. He tells Jennings that he tried to wait for Sal, and a woman carries him away. Another woman hits Jennings in the back of the head, puts him in the corner, and strikes him again for making a commotion. That night, Jennings attempts to escape, but he is caught halfway up the chain link fence. A man drags him to the office of an administrator, and the nurse, Margaret, is brought in. Jennings is worried, but they are kind to him and do not take Doggie from him. He tells them he wanted to find Mark. The nurse tells him that Mark has died, that he had a bad heart. Jennings passes out. When he wakes, the nurse injects him with a sedative to make him sleep. Months pass, and Jennings does not talk to or make friends with anyone. One day he is called to leave. Walter has come to pick him up.

Jennings rides home with Walter, who tells him that their mother is in traction at home and is completely incapacitated. Jennings is afraid to ask about Sal. Walter tells Jennings that Larry is back and is a drunk like George and their father. He says that they abandoned their education, and that education is the most important thing a person can have because it cannot be taken away. They have moved into a new apartment in a nice building with an automatic elevator, a new concept for Jennings. Jennings is brought in to see his mother, who is completely covered in casts in a suspension mechanism. George arrives home with Larry, who stumbles in drunk and goes to sleep. George is bitter as always but is caring with Jennings. The next day, Jennings asks Larry why he started drinking, and Larry shuts the door in his face.

One morning, Jennings finds Sal sitting in the kitchen. He explains that he could not take him because he has to leave for weeks at a time for his job. Jennings understands. He takes care of his mother over the next several weeks, and one day Larry leaves again. He has changed and is no longer the brother he once was to Jennings. Weeks later, Jennings’ birthday passes, and no one remembers. Sal brings Jerome one day, and he and Jennings become close once again. They talk about death, what it means to be a brother, and about their other brothers. Jerome is wise, always seeing things from multiple angles and never casting judgement: “There’s two sides to everything,” he says (235).

One day Jennings is sitting in the park outside of the apartment when Stacy from the Home of the Angels finds him. She kisses him and tells him that she still loves him. Jennings, embarrassed, notices how much more beautiful she is now. They walk together and agree to meet the next day. She kisses him on the lips. Back in the house, Jennings is dumbfounded, and Jerome realizes he must be in love. They talk about how people are afraid of love and afraid to express it, like their mother. Jerome knows that she loves them because of how much she struggles to keep them together.

Jennings begins to see Stacy at the park and the movies. One day Jennings is called into a small shack where he meets an elderly man who plays the harmonica. Jennings mentions that he has a friend named Stacy, and the man, Clarence, tells him that one’s first love is special and should never be forgotten. As Jennings continues to see Stacy, he is happier but cannot yet find the courage to tell her he loves her.

Stacy informs him one day that she has to leave with her family, and when she gets back she will have to go away for school. Jennings realizes that love hurts just as much as friendship does when it is lost. They agree to write to one another until they see each other the next summer, but they both know that there is no guarantee they will ever see each other again. Jennings still “live[s] by the rules of the home,” Stacy says (244). They say goodbye, and Jennings cannot work up the courage to tell her he loves her. As Jennings deals with his heartbreak, Jerome notices how much he has grown up.

Jerome soon becomes sick again and returns to the convalescent home. Jennings realizes that his love for Jerome, and his ability to express it, is what it means to be a brother. Their mother loses her mind and cuts the rope maintaining traction on her back. They realize that they had all given her pills and that she is overdosing. She is rushed off to the hospital, and the police tell Walter that the children will have to go to homes again. Jennings writes a note asking Sal to pick him up and keep him, but then he throws it into the trash can.