Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews April 4, 2023 March 28, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Mick has started learning to play the piano. She offers a classmate of hers, Delores Brown, her lunch money in exchange for piano lessons. One day Mick comes home to find Bubber and a neighborhood boy, Spareribs, sitting on the sidewalk. Spareribs has his new rifle with him; the gun had been his father's and was given to him when his father passed away. Spareribs warns Bubber not to mess with the trigger, as the gun is loaded with BBs. As the kids sit on the sidewalk, Harry Minowitz goes into his house next door. For a joke, Mick throws up an arm and says "Heil!" but Harry does not find it funny. He disappears into his house, and Mick immediately feels bad for offending him.
Then Baby Wilson comes out from her house across the street, dressed up in a little pink dance costume with a pink pocketbook. Bubber calls to Baby, but she does not answer and continues down the street. Spareribs comments that she is going to Biff Brannon's place to get candy, since he is her uncle and gives her candy for free. Bubber comments that he wants a butterfly-colored costume so he can dance around in the streets like Baby does. Spareribs calls Bubber a sissy, but Mick warns that Bubber is tough and smart.
Baby comes back down the street, holding a box of popcorn candy. Bubber says that she looks pretty in her pink costume. He calls again to her to come over, and he holds the rifle up to his shoulder to pretend to shoot at her. Unfortunately, Bubber actually does pull the trigger by accident. Baby crumples down to the sidewalk, her head bloody. Bubber screams.
Soon a crowd of people gathers around, and an ambulance comes and takes Baby to the hospital. Baby is not dead, but her skull is fractured. Afterward, no one can find Bubber. Mick knows he must be hiding in the treehouse in the back year, so she goes there and indeed he is there. She tells Bubber that he should stay hidden in the treehouse because, she says, he has in fact killed Baby and could therefore go to prison. Mick lies in order to scare Bubber into never shooting a gun again. She plans to go back to the treehouse in an hour to tell him she was lying, at which point she thinks he will have thought about it and will feel bad enough.
Mick goes back into the house, where her parents are worried and nervous. Lucile Wilson and Biff came over. Lucile says that she is not going to sue the Kellys, but that she wants them to pay for Baby's hospital bills and all related costs. Mick suddenly feels guilty and goes back outside to talk to Bubber again, but he is no longer in the treehouse.
Mick runs and tells her family that they better start looking for Bubber. She suggests he might have gone to Portia's house, and indeed they find a note he left at Portia's house saying that he went to "Florada." Mick knows that this is a ruse to throw them off, and that in reality Bubber is probably on the road that goes toward Atlanta—the only other faraway place he has ever heard of.
Please wait while we process your payment