a smart, well-to-do kid with a bright future. Everyone expected John to go to college and have a rewarding career. But two months before he graduated high school, John joined the army and left town. Helen did not understand his choice at the time, but she does now. She knows that only John can explain himself to Jack, and she feels trapped between her loyalties to her husband and to her son.

When John gets home, he and Helen discuss Jack’s behavior. John says he thinks Jack must be mad at him, and Helen agrees. Together they figure out that Jack is embarrassed to have a janitor for a father. John feels bitter about this because he knows his work provides for Jack’s needs. More than that, however, he feels helpless. He does not know how he should respond to what Jack has done. John and Helen decide against punishing Jack further, but they both know the issue is not over.

The next day, Jack is getting a bucket out of the supply closet when he finds a cupboard full of keys—all the keys to all the rooms in the entire school. Jack does not think of using them to steal or damage property. He sees them as an opportunity to explore. He takes two keys, those labeled “BELL TOWER” and “STEAM TUNNEL.”

After scraping gum off the desks in the library for an hour, Jack leaves a note for his dad. He says he missed the late bus and wants a ride home at five. In the meantime, he makes his way to the bell tower. He has no idea what a steam tunnel is or where to look for it, but now he wants to see the view from the highest place in the school. Jack sneaks through the tower door and climbs to the top. He looks out at the town and finds all the places he knows.

The view gets Jack thinking about his parents and how they have lived in one place their whole lives. He vows not to stay in town as they did, but to go to college and move somewhere more exciting. He cannot help doubting himself, however. He is the son of a janitor, and now he is stuck doing janitor work every afternoon. What if he ends up just like his dad? Jack sits down and makes a long list of differences between himself and his father. After he fills a whole page, he feels a little better. He does his homework in the tower until it is time to meet his dad and go home.

It is dark in the truck on the way home. Jack is sorry for messing up that desk, and he wants to say so, but he is not sure how. John starts the conversation instead. He asks if kids make fun of him for having a janitor for a father. Jack admits to a little teasing, but he plays it down because he knows he should not let it bother him. He and John both fall silent for a while, unsure what to say next.

John drives to a used car lot and tells Jack it used to belong to his father, Honest Phil Rankin. John explains that he worked on that car lot every Saturday from the time he was twelve until he joined the army. He hated it. Phil barely paid John and always trotted around showing off his skills as a salesman. John was not allowed to have a car for himself, but one night he stole a red Corvette, just to take it for a drive. He ran it into a pole and destroyed it completely. He was not hurt, but his father said he would have to put off college until he worked off the debt to pay for the car. John was furious. “You’re just a loud-mouthed junk dealer in a cheap sport coat,” he said. Rather than submit to his father’s rules, he joined the army and left town.

Jack can tell his father is going to say more, so he waits. John tells about Honest Phil’s death, many years later. When Phil was gone, several people told John that Phil had given them cars when they were too poor to buy one. John dismissed the first story as a lie or a mistake, but more people told him similar stories until he accepted that his father was a kinder, more generous man than he ever knew. John explains that his father did not force him to work out of stinginess but because he loved his son and wanted him to learn the value of hard work.

Listening to all this, Jack reflects that he has never heard his father talk so much. As they head for home, John says:

Just so you know it for good and all, I don’t expect you’ll ever be a janitor, Jackie. My life is my life, and yours is yours. I’m just glad that we get to run side by side for a few years, that’s all.

Jack decides that he does not know his father very well but wants to know him better.

When Jack is finished degumming the library, his father sends him to the auditorium. It is a huge space, and there is a great deal of gum on the seats. On his first afternoon there, Jack goes looking for a light switch and finds the door to the steam tunnel. He is excited and opens the door with his stolen key. He finds a dark stairwell but no light switch. After his gum scraping is finished for the day, he returns with a flashlight, intending to explore. He is unable to find a good way to prop the door open so he lets it slam shut behind him. Only then does he realize that he has left the key in the outside lock and cannot get back out.

Jack shouts and pounds on the door, but he gets no response. It is dark and cold in the tunnel, and he can hear rats. He knows he is unlikely to be found any time soon, so he makes his way down the stairs. The tunnels below are long, and Jack can tell they extend far beyond the school, out into the town. He has no idea how to get out, so he follows the smell of peanut butter. After a long walk, he comes to a corner that is fitted with a refrigerator, an army cot, a bookcase, a table, and even a cat. There is also a chair with a teenage boy sitting in it. He has an open jar of peanut butter in front of him.

Jack is curious about the little apartment. The boy, Eddie, explains that he did not set it up. He says his father has been in a violent mood, so he asked “John the janitor” for help. John gave him permission to use the hideout. Eddie shows Jack a list of people who have stayed in the tunnel, and Jack recognizes the first name. It is Lou, one of the assistant janitors who works with his father.

After these revelations, Eddie walks Jack to the fire station. One of the firefighters knows Eddie is in hiding in the steam tunnels and has given him a key that allows him to enter and exit through the fire station door. As soon as he gets outside, Jack realizes he is very late to meet his father. He begins running back toward the school. Halfway back, he finds his father in the truck, and he gets in. John has been looking for him, and he has been so worried that he became angry. He has done a little detective work and figured out that Jack was in the steam tunnels. Jack confesses that he met Eddie.

On the way home, John explains that he was badly scarred by the time he spent fighting overseas in the army. When he got home from the war, he could not really take care of himself, and his parents did not know what to do for him. He spent some time in a Veteran’s hospital. Then one afternoon, he went to visit his old high school English teacher. He did not find her, but he did meet the janitor, who was also a war veteran. That janitor gave John a part-time cleaning job. John says:

I’m not just talking when I tell you that the day Tom put a broom in my hands, he saved my life.

Janitor’s work gave him the chance to spend time in a place that was full of good memories, and he got to feel useful again. When that old janitor retired, John took over his job.

John says that he and Lou, who works with him now, served together in the war. Lou came home after John did, and he too was in bad shape. That is when John set up the apartment in the steam tunnel, so Lou could live independently but without paying rent until he found steady work. John has let needy people use the space ever since. Some have been war veterans like Lou; others have been kids in tough family situations like Eddie. Every year, John donates money to the Veteran’s Day parade fund to cover the cost of electricity for the space.

When John and Jack arrive home, Helen watches them get out of the car. She can tell immediately that they have found peace with each other. Jack looks like he has grown up, and John looks like he has grown younger, less burdened. Helen is glad to see so much love between them.