Calogero Timeline and Summary

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• Creeping out at night with his cousin Cirone, Calogero sees a panther.
• Back at home, his uncle is in an argument with a white man that ends badly.
• The next day, Francesco, Calo's uncle, gets a gun to try to scare the white man; Carlo (another uncle) tries to reason with him, but fails—so he sends Calo to find his tutor, Frank Raymond, for help intervening.
• Calo finds Frank, and then he works at the market all day, eventually meeting up with the girl he digs, Patricia.
• He walks with her, but she pretends to be uninterested.
• As they walk, he is introduced to her brother and his friends, who tease and heckle him a bit, but they don't really seem mean and they invite him to go alligator hunting with them.
• Calo is tired from worrying about his uncle all day, and goes home to a nice meal.
• During the meal he tries to pay attention to the conversation the uncles have and in particular, Francesco's talk with Joe Evans about the voting laws, which he doesn't understand.
• Dr. Hodge, their neighbor and the man Francesco was arguing with, sent a message about keeping Francesco's goats off his porch.
• The next day, his uncle makes Calogero and Cirone build a wooden porch. He wants them to paint it white to look fancy, but Calo thinks this is stupid because it will get dirty, so his uncle says to paint it black the following day. Ugh.
• That night Calo and Cirone sneak out again, and this time they bump into Charles and his friends picking up horse poop and putting it in some sacks. Yuck, right? But it makes most excellent fertilizer.
• Calo and Cirone help them and they have a good time; the boys set up an alligator hunt.
• The next day is Sunday. Calo and his fam go to Catholic mass, and then Calo meets with his tutor. While meeting with Frank, he asks about lynching and about why people think he speaks fancy.
• Calo learns about Sicilians being lynched in New Orleans. It's a major bummer moment.
• Then Frank takes him on a journey to meet Joseph, the entirety of the Tunica tribe and an Indian who lives all alone by the big river. They hang out and make clay bowls.
• The next day is alligator hunting day. The boys meet up and walk into the swamp.
• It is like another world in the swamp, and Calogero learns all sorts of things about the land that he never knew.
• They steal a bunch of alligator eggs to eat later and the boys learn about a ton of dangerous animals that could kill them. Oh goodie.
• The boys find a skiff and push themselves along until they find a small alligator.
• Calo and his cousin watch while Charles fights the alligator under water and Calo is terrified that the boy is dead—but he isn't. He kills the alligator. Boo ya.
• To help Charles in, Calo and Cirone reach over the edge of the skiff to get him… and flip the skiff.
• While in the dark and dangerous waters, Calo hears someone scream and they all work together to get back into the boat. The scream came from Cirone, who has hurt his foot.
• Once home, Francesco and the uncles slam the boys for being stupid and sneaking out. Their uncles punish them harshly, making them work really hard for a month, though Calo gets most of the punishment because he is older.
• Then one day the punishment stops, and Calo is told to help Charles take a bunch of food to his church. Apparently Charles's family is throwing a graduation party.
• Calo's whole family is invited to the party. Back at the market, Mr. Coleman is rude and angry that Calo and Francesco won't wait on him before the Black people who came into the store first.
• Calo wants to give Patricia a graduation gift so he takes a horse without asking and travels alone to Joseph's house to get a bowl he made. When he arrives, he is almost shot by Joseph. Calo hangs out at Joseph's for the day and arrives home late… which gets him in trouble again.
• At the graduation party, everyone has a great time but Calo, who only wants to talk to Patricia but is too shy and nervous. Finally, at the end of the night, he gives her the bowl he made and says that he ate more than enough food.
• Later he regrets saying he ate more than enough, and worries that Patricia might have taken it the wrong way, so he sneaks out of the house and runs to see her. He tells her that he meant he loved the alligator she cooked and they take a walk together—she knows all about birds, which totally impresses him.
• Then Calogero gets his first kiss. Aw…
• Running home, Dr. Hodge yells after him that he needs to take care of the goats or he'll shoot them, but Calo doesn't tell anyone about this interaction.
• The next day, on his way home from Frank's, Calogero runs into Cirone getting beat up by white boys; when he goes to help, they push him down too. Luckily a maid gets the boys away.
• When Calo and Cirone arrive home, their uncles are super upset about them being attacked, but decide not to do anything.
• The uncles explain the lynching of Sicilians in New Orleans eight years ago, which was horrible.
• Calogero understands now how dangerous the townspeople are. Being Sicilian is no joke with these white folks running the show. Gulp.
• Delivering watermelons the next day, Calo and Cirone get yelled at by another white dude, and give a few melons to Patricia's mother as a gift.
• On the Fourth of July, the boys lie and sneak off to a party at the church, where Calo hangs out with Patricia and Cirone goes with the boys.
• A few days later, Patricia and Calo walk to Miliken's Bend and meet her teacher Miss Clarrie; Calo decides he wants to go to school.
• While walking home, Calo and Patricia get caught in the rain and go chill in an abandoned shack in the woods.
• The next day, Calo is painting at Frank's place and his tutor is grumpy because he got fired from his mural painting job at the saloon due to the keeper's gripe with Francesco selling alcohol at his market.
• Calogero is also grumpy, because he wanted to work on a ship with the boys but wasn't allowed to. So Frank takes him out to Declaration Day.
• A man is mean to him on the street and kicks him off the sidewalk, the big ship is too far away to see, so they go to Calo's house for dinner instead.
• Again Dr. Hodge tells them to keep the goats tied up—he's pretty angry, and Francesco tells Calo to tie one of the goats up tomorrow after dinner.
• Calo learns that Cirone has been hanging with Charles and the boys on his own, and leaving Calo out of it. It hurts Calo's feelings, but then he realizes that he kind of ditched them all in favor of Patricia, so he can't really be mad about it.
• The next day Frank Raymond and the priest, Father May, come for dinner, so Calo and Cirone don't sneak out until very late. When they finally do, Rock is the only one of their friends waiting for them, and he's ticked off since it's too late for any fun now since they all have work in the morning. On the way home, Calo and Cirone hear gunshots and get scared because Calo remembers that he didn't tie up Bedda, the goat.
• Francesco goes with Calo to Dr. Hodge's and they see the two goats dead—Calo feels terrible and tries to apologize many times but it does no good.
• The uncles go to sit at the market to explain their side of the story; Calo goes with them. But Dr. Hodge goes walking by and Carlo is so mad at the man for breaking Francesco's heart that he walks up to him, yelling in Sicilian—and Dr. Hodge responds by beating him up.
• Calo watches as Giuseppe takes a gun out to the street. The doctor shoots at him and misses, but then Giuseppe shoots back, hitting him in the leg.
• Calo goes running for help and tells Francesco, then eavesdrops on white people who are lying about the doctor being murdered. Frank catches Calo listening, and tells him to run away—but Calo runs to the slaughterhouse instead, where he watches as the mob prepares to lynch his whole family.
• Charles and his buddies take Calogero's shirt, rip it in half, and ties pieces around their ankles; then they run off in different directions to trick the hounds that are searching for Calo—and our boy takes off for Joseph.
• Calo barely makes it to Joseph's, but when he does, he is so sad and scared that Joseph takes care of him, feeding him and listening to him and offering him a place to sleep. Then Joseph gives Calo some money and a canoe, helps him make a plan, and sends him down the river to escape.
• Calo thinks about seeing his bother Rocco again.