Al Capone Does My Shirts: Chapter 4: American Laugh-Nosed Beet Summary & Analysis

When Moose gets up the next morning, Dad is at the kitchen table, reading the paper while Mom packs Natalie’s suitcase. Moose asks Natalie if the sun got up today, which he does every morning. It used to bug him that she never answers, but after hearing that she spent the day sobbing the one day he didn’t ask her, he continues to ask. Also as usual, Mom asks Natalie what she wants for breakfast, and Natalie says she wants lemon cake. Mom agrees, since today is a “special day.” Natalie holds her face inches from her plate and shovels cake into her mouth, which makes Moose feel ill—he doesn’t eat with Natalie if Dad isn’t around.

Natalie says, “Natalie Flanagan’s whole family,” and Moose wonders if she knows what’s coming: nobody in the family has told her that students don’t come home from the Esther P. Marinoff school. Dad says that Natalie will have fun with kids her age, and Moose wonders what age that is—though even if the other kids are much younger, Natalie still might be able to communicate with them better.

Soon after, Dad hands Natalie her button box and picks up her suitcase. Mom says that Moose doesn’t need to come and Moose says he doesn’t want to, but Dad says Moose has to come. Moose is reminded of when he was six, and Mom sent him to Gram’s. Gram glared horribly at Mom when Mom dropped Moose off. Later, Moose overheard Gram saying how horrible it was that a psychiatrist told Mom that Natalie wasn’t getting enough attention, so Mom “ship[ped] [Moose] off.” She spat that being without Moose would make Natalie sicker, and that Moose didn’t make Natalie “the way she is.” Dad came to get Moose early the next morning with no explanation.

Now, the family is walking down to the dock and the boat, which the boatman has told them doesn’t wait for anyone. Dad runs ahead while Natalie lags behind. Mom tells Natalie this school will be a great opportunity as Dad opens up McGregor’s Illustrated Animal Book, which has a great index (Natalie loves having an index read aloud to her). On the boat, Natalie rocks more than usual, so Moose looks up at the sky and says he sees 229 gulls. Natalie says he’s wrong; there are only nine. She loves to catch his mistakes. Now, the boat is coming into San Francisco. Moose’s family watches another family walk down the gangplank. The toddler with the family goes down backward, carefully, and then grabs his mom’s hand. At the sight, Mom begins to cry.

Seeing Mom cry, Natalie curls into a ball and refuses to move. Dad talks to Natalie while Mom talks to the boatman, who’s eager to get moving back to Alcatraz. Finally, Moose grabs the book and begins to read the index, but changing the animals’ names and listing incorrect page numbers. Natalie bolts up, corrects him, and follows Moose off the boat. She then grabs Moose’s hand hard. Natalie doesn’t hold hands—why now? Moose tells himself things will be fine, but deep down, he feels sick and knows this is just “another one of [his] mother’s crazy ideas.” But Moose always does what he’s told to do.