60 pages • 2 hours read
Louis SacharSmall Steps
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 25-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary
Armpit doesn’t believe that Kaira is serious about San Francisco, but he gets a call from Aileen giving him flight options. Armpit lets Aileen choose, and it is only after the call that he realizes he will miss his economics final.
In San Francisco, Aileen is discussing Armpit with Jerome. Jerome is excitedly telling Aileen that Armpit is perfect for their murderous plan because he has a criminal record for assault and battery. Jerome and Aileen, who have already embezzled close to $3 million from Kaira’s trust fund, want more. Jerome, knowing that Kaira wants to fire him when she turns 18, plans on killing Kaira (framing Billy Boy, or now Armpit) thereby gaining access to her entire fortune though Kaira’s mother, whom he will divorce to be with Aileen. Aileen, who sees Jerome as a “weak, insecure man” (194), has other plans. In addition to booking a ticket for Armpit, Aileen books one for herself under the name on her passport—Denise Linaria—to Costa Rica. Kaira, oblivious to all the plotting and excited to see Armpit, is grateful to Aileen for booking his ticket. Kaira has not told her mother about Jerome’s affair with Aileen, believing that she still needs Jerome as her manager. Kaira’s concert that night is in a beautiful outside amphitheater, and this time she sings, “Save me, Armpit! A damsel in distress” (196).
Chapter 26 Summary
Armpit is with his boss, Jack Dunlevy, at the site where they installed a sprinkler system two months prior. There is a leak, and the homeowner wants it fixed for free. Armpit is faced with digging up the entire system when he notices a new bush near the house. Armpit quickly finds the leak and fixes it, confirming that whoever planted the bush caused it. As Armpit is finishing the job, a car pulls up. Felix and Moses get out and pull X-Ray out of the back. X-Ray has a bruise on his face, no glasses, and a ripped shirt. Felix tells Armpit that he had a visit from “Detective Cutie-pie” (200) and that the mayor is talking about making ticket-scalping illegal. Felix tells Armpit that news about the phony tickets has affected his sales, so to make up for his lost money, Felix wants to pay Armpit $150 for Kaira’s letter. Armpit is stunned. He looks at X-Ray, knowing he must have told Felix about the letter. Felix gives Armpit an ultimatum: 24 hours to sell him the letter or he hands X-Ray and Armpit over to the detective. Jack Dunlevy interrupts them, so Felix and Moses walk back to their car, crushing X-Rays glasses on the way. X-Ray tries to explain to Armpit how Felix knows about the letter. Under duress, X-Ray mentioned the letter to reinforce that the phony tickets had caused no harm, but it backfired. A letter from Kaira DeLeon is worth a fortune.
Armpit tells Jack the sprinkler leak is fixed and that the homeowner caused it. Jack smiles and tells X-Ray that he’s giving Armpit a raise and his own crew before offering X-Ray a job too. Jack asks X-Ray whether he was at Camp Green Lake, X-Ray answers, “Yes, sir. That’s where I met Theodore” (203), calling Armpit by his real name for once, and this reply prompts Jack to increase his job offer’s hourly rate. To Armpit’s surprise, X-Ray accepts the job offer.
Chapter 27 Summary
In economics class Armpit learned about a donkey who died of starvation, unable to choose which identical haystack to choose when standing exactly halfway between them. He never understood the point but now Armpit understands how the donkey felt. He is paralyzed by indecision. He will fail economics if he goes to San Francisco, but he needs to go to San Francisco to see Kaira to explain about the letter; X-Ray will go to jail if he doesn’t sell Felix the letter, but it will destroy Kaira if he does.
Chapter 28 Summary
Armpit wakes up on Friday morning with a plan. He finishes his speech final but leaves school (reluctantly) before his economics final to go to San Francisco. He called Felix before school and told him that he’d give him Kaira’s letter on Monday. However, Felix and Moses are waiting for him after school, demanding the letter. Moses doesn’t let Armpit talk and starts punching him. Armpit fights back, and they end up wrestling in the gutter. A white limousine pulls up and the driver yells that he has called the police before turning the corner toward Armpit’s house. Armpit gets up and walks to his house, stepping on Moses’s white cowboy hat on the way in retaliation for X-Ray’s glasses.
The limo driver is standing outside Armpit’s house but gets back in the limo and locks the doors when he sees Armpit coming. Through the window Armpit tells the wary driver, “It’s me! Theodore Johnson. I’m the guy you’re here for” (209). Armpit quickly grabs his things and splashes his face, worried the limo driver will leave, but the driver waits and opens the limo door for Armpit, greeting him, “Welcome, Mr. Johnson […] Sorry I didn’t realize who you were before” (210). On the way to the airport, Kaira Deleon’s song “Frying Pan” plays on the radio.
Chapters 25-28 Analysis
Aileen’s role in the narrative is described in this section, and her character is developed. Aileen is money-hungry, manipulative, clever, and willing to do whatever it takes to maximize her profits, a theme that runs throughout the book. Aileen’s plan to steal all of Kaira’s fortune has been years in the making and is deeper than her partner Jerome realizes. Aileen has not only fooled Kaira and her mother but also has fooled Jerome into believing she loves him and intends to marry him. She sees Jerome for the “weak, insecure man” (194) he is and plans to leave him with blood on his hands as she disappears with Kaira’s money. Jerome congratulates himself on uncovering Armpit’s criminal record. Jerome knows he is not smart and overcompensates with self-aggrandizement: he publicly (and frequently) calls himself a “genius” and credits himself for Kaira’s success: “She’s not the golden goose! […] I’m the golden goose. She’d still be sitting in her church choir if it weren’t for me. I made her who she is, and I can find someone else just as easily” (195). Jerome’s need to brag about how amazing he is simply underscores his insecurities and exposes the fear he feels about his future. Aileen is happy to let Jerome take the limelight. Staying in the background, doing her job well, and getting along with everyone are all part of Aileen’s plan—no one will suspect her of being involved until she is safely out of reach.
X-Ray’s naivete about the ticket-scalping business and his lack of planning ruin the exhilaration X-Ray and Armpit feel. X-Ray copies the tickets on impulse, without a thought beyond his own immediate need to please Armpit, satisfy the buyers, and make money. X-Ray isn’t malicious, but he repeats this mistake when he tells Felix about the letter Kaira sent Armpit—another impulsive decision that backfires. The downward spiral of the moment is saved by Armpit’s boss, Jack Dunlevy, who, despite witnessing the physical altercation between X-Ray and Moses, recognizes Armpit’s integrity, intelligence, and hard work and is willing to give X-ray a chance because he’s Armpit’s friend. X-Ray’s willingness to accept Jack’s offer of a job, likely prompted by his painful interaction with Moses, signals that he is ready to try making an honest living.
Armpit’s character is usually laser focused. He has a list of goals and is excelling at school and work, so when he must choose between two bad options—sell the letter and betray Kaira or refuse to sell the letter and send X-Ray to jail—he is paralyzed. The Kaira deviation is not in his plan. Armpit compares himself to the donkey who dies “paralyzed by indecision, a donkey between two haystacks” (205) because he values loyalty and friendship and can’t bear to be disloyal to either Kaira or X-Ray. The decision Armpit finally makes is one in which he sacrifices only himself by guaranteeing that he fails his economics class. His determination to turn his life around is equaled only by the pain he feels when his academic trajectory is disrupted: “His feeling of regret was so strong that he actually felt pain walking away from the school building” (206).
On the way to the airport, the trouble that Armpit is heading toward in San Francisco is foreshadowed by the song playing on the limousine’s radio. It is Kaira singing “Frying Pan”: “He’s climbing out of the frying pan…And into the fire!” (211).
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By Louis Sachar
