The Bullet
- According to Dad, there's only one place to spend Mr. H's twenty bucks: Rico's Pool Hall. He's been spending all his time getting drunk there, and Mom has had it up to here.
- So one day she takes Manny with her to bring Dad back. This should go well…
- Inside Rico's, Mom has to go into the men's bathroom in order to find Manny's dad, who is pretty embarrassed about the whole thing. Things only get worse when Rico himself refuses to give Dad any drinks.
- Mom takes Manny home, but so far Dad still hasn't come back yet. Mom clearly has a plan, though, and she orders Magda to go to her friend Linda's place, tells Manny to babysit Pedi, and then writes a note to Dad and leaves.
- The moment we've been waiting for arrives: Dad is back. Manny remembers the days when his dad coming home from work was awesome because he'd bring loads of groceries. These days Dad coming home is a depressing and drunken affair, though, and today is no exception.
- So Dad is back, and at first he's eerily calm—he's complaining about the house being dirty when it's not, but still, he's not in a huge rage. Once he sees Mom's note that she's getting her hair done at their neighbor Sophie's, however, Dad starts to get really angry. And when we say angry, we mean the grabbing-the-rifle-and-searching-for-bullets kind. Yep, things are about to get crazy.
- Dad is searching for bullets, making a mess throughout the house, while Manny is trying to convince his old man that shooting Mom is a bad idea. Little Pedi just thinks everyone is playing a game and can't wait to pick up scattered bullets from the floor.
- When Dad rushes outside, he beats on Sophie's door, so Mom tries to run away. Dad keeps trying to shoot her, but the bullets won't go into the gun, and Mom keeps trying to dodge him by hiding behind trees. It ain't a pretty scene.
- Sirens come down the street so everyone rushes inside. Mom hides the rifle down the hall, and when the cops show up and ask Dad about the shooting incident, he basically pretends like nothing happened at all, lying in response to every single question. Mom doesn't say a word to the cops.
- Things go from bad to worse when the cops find the rifle in the bedroom and say they'll have to take it away. Just like that, Dad is seeing red again.
- The cops cuff him and say they'll need to take him in; Mom tells them to go for it.
- After Dad leaves, Mom is in a bit of a stupor. She starts talking about how much she wants a vacuum cleaner and how the bail will be too high to pay. Plus, Pedi is freaking out now and there's only one thing to make her calm down: a bullet. Ugh.