Chapter 4: Safari Summary

Rolph talks to Charlene about being on the beach in Hawaii. The family is currently on safari in Africa. Rolph calls Charlene "Charlie" because she hates her real name. While they talk, their father, Lou, sits nearby. Charlie watches her father interact with Mindy, his girlfriend. Charlie reminds her father that he was married to her mother at the time of that trip. Rolph is too young to understand his father's behavior. Charlie is 14 and in a defiant stage. During the ten days of a twenty-one day safari, Charlie feels as if she has changed.

Lou and Rolph take a walk during which they discuss how women can be crazy, Rolph, 11, does not really understand what the right amount of crazy is, nor does his thirty-something father.

He says, "Lou puts his arm around Rolph. If he were an introspective man...