Chapter Four (Gideon) Summary

Gideon Van Deusen was Nora's older brother, but that didn't stop sixth-grade Ruby from falling madly in love with him. She realized her crush when Gideon came home from a church function where the minister had talked to the teenagers about abstinence. He had baked two different loaves of banana bread - one where he added the ingredients in the proper order, and one where he had added the same ingredients, but out of order. The first loaf turned out beautifully. The second loaf was dense and sunken and generally unappetizing. The minister told the kids that the bread was symbolic of sex and marriage. If you do everything in the right order (wait to have sex until after you're married), your relationship will turn out beautifully. If you do things out of order, you'll be condemned to a...