Bluefish

Velveeta likes Travis. Some of the other kids think he’s boring because he doesn’t talk much, but Velveeta thinks it’s charming that he only says important things. She thinks other kids who constantly gossip are boring. Velveeta thinks Travis’s lack of talkativeness means he’s hiding a secret, though. She thinks maybe he has some disease, like leukemia, and that’s why he moved to a new school.

They’re supposed to work on Social Studies projects in class today, so Travis pretends to be sick until Grandpa says he’ll stay home from work to babysit. Then, Travis claims he’s feeling better and will attend school. Velveeta has an idea for a skit, but Travis doesn’t want to do it, so they play tic-tac-toe instead.

At lunch, Travis asks why Velveeta cared that he returned Bradley’s shoe if she’s not friends with him (which Bradley told her in the park). She says it was nice because every year, people make fun of Bradley and steal his things, but this time, Travis stood up for him quietly.

Ms. Gordon tells Velveeta that she and Travis need to turn in an outline for their Social Studies project, for the sake of their futures. Velveeta tries to convey the message to Travis, but he says she should get a new partner, such as Bradley, and that Velveeta should stop “bugging” him. Velveeta is confused as to why he is suddenly so angry.

Walking home from school, Travis wishes that everyone, including Velveeta, would leave him be. The high school boys are sitting near the bridge and ask his name. He doesn’t tell them and half-expects them to start a fight, but they don’t, and neither does he. He goes home.

Grandpa says Travis should find something to do, such as a sport or a job. Travis says he had lots to do at their old place. Grandpa says Travis needs to stop complaining about the move and try to meet his efforts at connection halfway. Travis asks Grandpa to leave him be, but Grandpa refuses.

Velveeta is mad that Travis won’t do her skit for Social Studies, so instead of going to school, she spends the day in Calvin’s trailer. Earlier that morning, Velveeta’s mom claimed she’s never drinking again. Velveeta thinks her sobriety will only last a couple of days. Velveeta’s mom also plans to cook a nice dinner this evening. She called Jimmy to invite him, but to Velveeta’s delight, he didn’t pick up.

Velveeta’s absent, so Ms. Gordon asks Travis for the outline, which he doesn’t have. He tells her they’re not working together anymore. She says he still has to turn in an outline by the end of class, even if they’re working individually. Class ends, and he runs out the door without turning anything in.

At the end of Reading, McQueen speaks to Travis privately and asks if he wants to learn how to read. He says Travis is capable of learning, but only if he wants to. If so, McQueen can teach him. He tells Travis to go to lunch and let him know when he’s decided.

At his old school, Travis used to see a reading specialist named Mrs. Keatley, who would always tell him to “just try,” which infuriated him because it implied he wasn’t trying. Eventually, he could tell she thought he was a waste of her time, so he stopped trying. However, he thinks maybe he could try again now.

Bradley runs into Travis in the bathroom and shows him a “report card” that some girls made about the boys, grading them on how cute, smart, and funny they are. Travis can’t read what the categories say, but he can read his name. At lunch, he opens his fox book and can’t decipher most of the words. However, he’s encouraged because McQueen didn’t tell him to “try” but instead said, “I will teach you and you will learn” (71) as if it was a guarantee, and he really believed it.

At the end of the school day, Travis tells McQueen he wants to learn. McQueen is delighted and asks Travis to meet him before school on Monday for their first lesson.

Velveeta’s mom made a nice dinner the previous night, and Jimmy didn’t come over. Velveeta got the electricity turned back on in Calvin’s trailer. She gave Connie cash and asked her to write a check to the electric company, claiming it was for her own trailer’s electric bill. Connie obliged.

On Monday morning, Travis meets McQueen, who starts reading aloud to him from the fox book. Travis doesn’t understand how this is going to help him learn to read, but McQueen insists that he’s the teacher and Travis should trust his methods. Travis listens intently and enjoys the story; McQueen reads 12 pages. He says when Travis comes to fourth-period Reading, he should look through the first 12 pages and circle every word he doesn’t know in pencil. He can come for extra reading help on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Travis is intrigued and excited because McQueen is using different methods from the reading specialist at his old school, so maybe they’ll actually work. Also, circling words he doesn’t know is a very attainable goal to start with.

In first period, Travis half-apologizes for telling Velveeta she was “bugging” him, and they make up. At lunch, Bradley asks if he can join Travis and Velveeta. At first, Velveeta is skeptical because Bradley is more upper-class than Velveeta and Travis, but then she sees he’s sincere and invites him to stay. Bradley brought a healthy lunch from home featuring pasta, spinach, pine nuts, and squash, whereas, in Travis and Velveeta’s free school lunches, they get things like grilled cheese or hamburgers (not vegetables). Bradley offers to share his with them. Velveeta talks about movies made by M. Night Shyamalan, which impresses Bradley. Velveeta claims everyone has something obscure that they know about, except Bradley, who knows about everything. Bradley doesn’t know anything about movie directors and writers, though. Velveeta invites Bradley to sit with them again in the future.

Velveeta wanted to impress Bradley by talking about M. Night Shyamalan, and it seems to have worked. Velveeta thinks Bradley is interesting because he’s smart, the only Black student in their class, and resilient despite being a “nerd” who’s unathletic and constantly teased.

At home, Travis circles words he doesn’t know in the fox book while Grandpa’s at his AA meeting. When it’s nearing the time for Grandpa to return home, Travis puts the book away and turns the TV on so Grandpa won’t see what he was doing. Grandpa comes home, turns the TV off, and says Travis needs to start talking about what’s bothering him, like they do in AA. Travis says he isn’t in AA, but Grandpa says he might be one day if he keeps “this” up. Grandpa says if Travis’s dad would have talked about his problems, maybe he’d still be alive because he was drunk when he died in a car accident. If Travis talks about his problems, maybe he can avoid becoming like his father and Grandpa. Travis points out that Grandpa has repeatedly told him before that “nobody likes a chatterbox” (84). Grandpa now regrets saying this and is trying to be a better parental figure to Travis than he was before.

In Social Studies the following morning, Velveeta delivers her skit individually. It’s hilarious, and everyone loves it. After class, Velveeta says Travis could have been in it, and she wouldn’t have even made him say any lines if he didn’t want to. In the hallway, Chad (the basketball kid) asks if Travis is too busy with Velveeta to play basketball, which almost makes Travis fight him. At his old school, he got in lots of fights and always took it too far, hurting people badly. Velveeta is impressed at how Travis defended her and asks if he’d beat up a list of people for her, but he says no because Travis is not proud of fighting and thinks it makes him seem stupid.

Velveeta’s mom made a nice dinner again, but this time, Jimmy came over and brought beer, which they both drank. Velveeta is disappointed that her mom’s no-drinking streak didn’t last long. She wonders if Travis could beat Jimmy up for her, but she doesn’t want to introduce Travis to Jimmy. She’d like to move into Calvin’s trailer and wonders if her mom would notice.

On Wednesday morning, Travis worries that he’s circled too many words in the fox book, and maybe McQueen didn’t realize just how bad his reading was when he committed to helping him learn. Travis asks if they should start with an easier book, but McQueen says this one is appropriate for Travis’s intellectual level. McQueen reads more of the story to Travis, then writes five words Travis circled on a piece of paper: young, hunt, summer, night, and branches. He tells Travis what each one says and quizzes him until he’s memorized them. Travis worries this isn’t real reading, but McQueen says it’s word recognition, and Travis should keep practicing them until he can recognize them in any context. Then, he can erase the circles around them in his book. McQueen again appeals to his authority as the teacher and says Travis should trust his methods. Travis feels like the blocks of text in the book are a “code” that he desperately wants to “crack.”

In the hallway before first period, Velveeta sees him with the book and asks what he’s doing at school so early; she’s there for breakfast. Travis doesn’t tell her and seems evasive. Travis thinks it’s neat that Velveeta wears a different scarf every day.

Bradley sits with Travis and Velveeta at lunch again. He asks again if they’re dating, then starts performing a routine from the video game “Halo” about a secret password. Neither Travis nor Velveeta play video games because they don’t own any, and Bradley recently had his taken away because his parents thought he was talking about them too much. Last night, he went to some other boy’s house, but he didn’t play the game even though they were playing because his parents banned him from it. Bradley claims he never lies to his parents. Velveeta says she lies all the time and asks Bradley if he’s just sitting with them so he can learn how to talk about normal, “white trash” topics to impress his parents. Bradley says that’s not the reason, but Velveeta storms off. Bradley asks Travis to help him convince Velveeta he wasn’t being rude, but Travis says Bradley should do this himself.

After her library job, Velveeta went home and played cribbage with her mom, who was drunk and started asking what she would do when Velveeta leaves her. She hopes she can leave someday, but she does worry about her mom because Jimmy won’t take care of her. She envies Bradley, who has loving, caring parents who make sure his needs are met. She’s been reading a book on McQueen’s recommendation about a smart girl who never learned to read, but now she’s learning by circling words she doesn’t know in her book. Velveeta thinks Travis might be doing the same thing.