The Fourth Stall

While fishing Saturday morning at the lake house, Mac and Vince discuss the plan to take out Justin and debate calling the police. After lunch, they play catch, and the talk turns to money. Vince worries that Mac cares more about showing up Staples than saving enough money for World Series tickets. Mac defends himself, worried about Vince’s distracted behavior. Mac begins to wonder if Vince is right; perhaps he should have sent Fred away when he first came to them. Worried now, Mac asks Vince how much money they have. Vince responds but also demonstrates nervousness with a fake smile and insincere laughter.

Then Mac sees a red sports car with black stripes. They spy on the cabin where the car is parked, wondering if it could be Staples. While they watch in hiding, an unkempt fortyish man in ratty clothing slams out of the cabin. A woman screams to get out; she tells him, “You’re pathetic! Pathetic! Your son pays your bills, you useless piece of garbage!” (166). They wonder if the man could be Staples’s father. If that were true, Vince suggests it sheds new light on Staples’s motives, but Mac disagrees. Vince asks Mac if he can recall what it was like not to have a lot of money. The two end on a sour note and do not talk much the reminder of the trip. When Mac and his parents arrive home Sunday afternoon after dropping Vince off, they are shocked to see their house egged and their garage door vandalized with a threatening message to someone named “Mac.”

Mac leaves for school after agreeing to his father’s suggestion that he and his friends help clean the eggs and paint from the house and garage. At school, Mac is troubled because he realizes he must turn customers away who want a loan; he cannot help them if he wants to maintain the Game Fund and the Emergency Fund. Joe takes a note from Mac to Justin, proposing they meet. Justin chooses to meet at four the next afternoon at the old shed on the school grounds. Mac likes this; he can work the location into the plan.

Mac is shocked to discover Staples sitting at his kitchen table when he arrives home from school. Mac’s mother, charmed by Staples’s demeanor, gives him Oreos and milk. When she leaves, Staples threatens Mac. Mac offers back a few wisecracks. Staples suggests Mac come work for him, but Mac refuses. Staples angrily smashes an Oreo and leaves. Later that evening, Mac pulls out all of the money in the Funds and counts it. He decides there must be an error in their petty cash fund (which Vince and Mac call their Tom Petty Fund), which they use for expenses and employees’ payouts. He finds they are short “a few hundred bucks and some change” (181).

The Tom Petty cash is in a lockbox Mac keeps in the bathroom’s trash can. Early the next morning, he counts it and determines the shortage exists there. When Vince comes in, he listens as Mac explains the concern. Vince suggests Mac forgot to write down some payouts. But when Mac asks to see Vince’s Books, Vince interrupts by saying that he cannot come to the meeting at the shed that afternoon because he must go to his grandmother’s birthday party. He says he tried to get out of it but could not. The bell rings, and they go to class. Mac, however, is too upset with Vince’s suspicious behavior to sit in class. He asks to use the restroom and goes to his office. He sees discrepancies right away in Vince’s Books: “Vince had been padding the numbers so he could steal money undetected” (187). He hides the cash box in a toilet tank and goes back to class.

At early recess, Vince is upset that the box is missing. Mac demands the key for the box from Vince and accuses him of stealing from it. Vince offers no excuse and gives over the key. 

After school Mac uses a key he got from the janitor to open the shed. Despite the terrible heat, his three remaining bullies—Kitten, Great White, and Nubby—go inside along with Joe. Justin approaches with several people, but Mac has help inside the shed waiting for his signal. Mac thanks Justin for coming, but Justin’s friend Mitch rushes to the shed and locks the door from the outside with a bike lock. The bullies yell and pound but cannot get out. Once they are locked in, a car pulls up, and four high school boys, including PJ, get out.

Mac makes a noble effort to fight them; he gets in several good kicks and swings. Soon, though, PJ threatens to “douse” the bullies with some liquid through a crack in the shed door, and Mac gives in. They hit him in the stomach and face. When they finally let him fall to the ground, he is in pain but glad to have his teeth. The bullies and Joe are soaked in sweat and have difficulty breathing when they get out of the shed; they are concerned for Mac and vow revenge. Mac realizes his snitch problem is not solved; he finds it hard to believe a best friend would betray him that way but cannot help being suspicious of Vince.