Character Analysis
Jimmy Mattaman
Jimmy is Theresa's older brother. He's about Moose's age, and he's described as looking like the boy version of Theresa: "Same curly black hair. Same slight build" (9.22). But he's not as big of a personality. Instead, he's pretty laid back and kind of just follows the gang around on their adventures.
Annie Bomini
Annie's the quiet girl in the Alcatraz gang. She likes to read and doesn't talk much, though she definitely likes to listen: "I look for a second at Annie. Something about the way she's concentrating makes me thing she's paying more attention to us than to her work" (9.44). She's also pretty good at baseball. As Moose notes, "she's sturdy […] and she has the best throwing arm I've ever seen on a girl" (9.67). No small compliment coming from our baseball aficionado.
Like Theresa, Annie has great intuition about people. She's able to read a situation really well—"Annie looks at my mom and Natalie. I see in Annie's small blue eyes that she understands" (20.34)—which is something Moose and Natalie only need more of in their lives.
Pete
Pete is Moose's best friend from home. We never meet him, and we hear less and less from him as the book goes on, but he's important because he represents the home that Moose misses when he moves to Alcatraz.
Convict 105, a.k.a. Onion
Onion is described as a friendly, harmless-seeming guy: "The con is smiling. He's missing a front tooth. There are dark greased comb marks in his hair" (26.6). If he weren't in prison, he'd seem like an ordinary chap, right? But Moose suspects the worst of him after finding him alone with his sister, Natalie.
We never find out what crime 105 committed, but whatever it is, his sentence is almost up and the guys in charge of Alcatraz trust him enough to wander around outside the jail: "That's why he has so much freedom. They figure he wouldn't run with six months to go" (29.46). Piper even describes him as "'some criminal choir boy'" (29.84). You know who else Piper compares to " a nice little church boy" (9.75)? Yup, Moose. In this parallel assessments, it seems like 105 is probably not the scariest guy in Alcatraz.
We'll never know for certain what goes down between 105 and Natalie, but when Moose sees them together for the last time, the scene looks innocent and happy: "Natalie is holding hands with a man convicted of some awful crime. It's so strange, so awful and so… normal" (33.81), he notes. 105's kindness to Natalie is the only thing that's ever made Moose's sister actually smile, and that's something Moose just can't hate on completely.
Dr. Carrie Kelly
Dr. Kelly is Natalie's therapist, and the first doctor who's able to make a noticeable change in Natalie's behavior. Still, though, Moose seems pretty skeptical about what she's doing, especially when Mom says: "'Mrs. Kelly said we can't let ourselves get in Natalie's way. She said we're the stumbling block. If Natalie's going to change, we have to change first'" (13.18). Moose may resist this news, but in a way, Dr. Kelly's totally right: Once Mom changes, Natalie has room to change, too. For more on this, check out their pages in this section.
The Trixles
Mr. and Mrs. Trixle are the Flanagan's neighbors. Mrs. Trixle does Mrs. Flanagan's hair and knocks on the door when the phone rings for them; Mr. Trixle works as a guard on Alcatraz. They pop in and out of the story as background characters, but they're friendly and welcoming to Moose's family. And that's about that.