Chapter 23 Summary

Palmer attends Beans' tenth birthday party and Beans can hardly wait for the event to end so that he and his friends can run outside and find Farquar, who will administer The Treatment. Farquar is not in any of his normal locations and Beans begins to frantically call out for the older boy, as if receiving The Treatment is the only way that Beans will officially be ten. Finally, Farquar is located at the soccer field and Beans does not flinch during his dose of The Treatment. At the end, Beans throws up his hands with joy proclaiming his official status as a wringer.

Chapter 23 Analysis

The author introduces another conflict for the characters in their acceptance of The Treatment on each birthday. "Among the four friends, there was the feeling that neither calendar nor cake made a birthday, not officially. For it...