him out of the loop. John explains in chapter 5 the following:

"If [Norton] knew about it, he'd try to hustle in on the deal, and he'd never stop at ten dollars. I don't want anyone really to take advantage of the old man. . . not the way Norton would have" (31).

As John and Lorraine become closer friends and start hanging out at Mr. Pignati's place, Norton must feel rejected. He eventually follows the couple and confronts John about what they do at that house with an old man. He also asks if the old man has things he could lift off of him. John either ignores Norton's questions or down-plays what Mr. Pignati has in the house. For example, Mr. Pignati has three television sets, but John doesn't disclose that information to Norton. He doesn't want to entice Norton to burglarize the poor man. By this time, John cares for and wants to protect Mr. Pignati from any harm.

Readers should look near the beginning of chapter 9 for this answer. Chapter 9 is one of the chapters that is narrated by John, and John admits that Lorraine is correct about John's feelings toward Norton. John hates Norton. John then attempts to explain why Norton has become such a complete jerk. John thinks it has something to do with the fact that Norton used to play with dolls when he was kid. Norton eventually got old enough to realize that, according to gender norms at the time, that wasn't something boys should do, so he stopped; however, the rest of the kids continued to tease him about it. Norton went a bit "berserk" about it and turned into a "tough guy" that beat everybody up and called them "sissies."

But the kids used to make cracks about him, so that made him go berserk around the age of ten. He was the only berserk ten-year-old in the neighborhood. From then on he turned tough guy all the way. He was always picking fights and throwing stones and beating up everybody. In fact, he got so tough he used to go around calling the other guys sissies.

Norton also has a chip on his shoulder from being caught shoplifting. His entire score was a bag of marshmallows, so now people refer to him as "the Marshmallow Kid." Norton can't stand that.

Readers can begin finding this information at the end of Chapter 3. John and Lorraine are telling readers about their prank phone calls and some of the games that they try to play with the people that pick up the phone. One of the games is to try and keep the person on the other end of the line talking as long as possible. In Chapter 4, Lorraine calls Mr. Pignati. She is able to keep him on the phone for a long time, and she even convinces him that she is collecting money for a charity. Mr. Pignati agrees to donate money to the "L and J Fund," and John and Lorraine agree to pick up the money the next day. Mr. Pignati begins winning over their hearts and minds from that point, and the relationship becomes quite a loving and deep relationship between the three people. The relationship is especially beneficial for John and Lorraine because they have no stable adults in their lives.

They were making crank phone calls and called Mr. Pignati. They said they were collecting money for a charity. They go to Mr. Pignati's house to collect the money. This is the start of how they get to know him. Eventually they become close friends, sort of, but really it is Mr. Pignati that is willing to become like a father figure for the two. Their parents are unavailable and so they don't really have any guidance in their lives. They really like him because he gives them his time, unlike their parents who either do not have time, in the case of Lorraine's mother who has no husband, or who are mostly interested in making money like in John's case. His father is a stockbroker.

When John and Lorraine first call Mr. Pignati, he seems excited at the simple notion that Pignati is gullible and could easily be taken for a ride. So he does not necessarily like Mr. Pignati himself, but only the possibilities he presents.

When they visit Mr. Pignati to collect the $10 he had promised to donate to their made-up charity, John loves the big goofy smile Mr. Pignati is wearing. He relates the "crazy" smile to a drunken Santa Claus. He and Lorraine both think he is "too nice to be for real" and although later he considers that Mr. Pignati might be a psychotic killer, that smile on his face is what immediately makes John like him.

Norton is one of John and Lorraine's classmates who discovers that they have been spending a lot of time with Mr. Pignati. Since Norton has developed a talent for stealing things, John does not trust him. When Norton invites him to the cemetery for a beer in chapter 9, John mostly goes in an effort to keep him from finding out why they haven't been hanging out with him as much recently. Norton, however, proves that the reason he asked John to have a drink is to find out exactly what is "worth stealing" in the old man's house.

John does his best to give Norton vague answers. For example, Norton asks if the old man has any tools, TVs or radios, but John lies and tells him Mr. Pignati has nothing worth stealing. Norton then calls Lorraine a screech owl and John defends her by telling him not to call her that. The worst part happens when Norton suggests that if John doesn't tell him more information about Mr. Pignati, then he and Dennis will go visit him for themselves—which means he will just go rob the guy on his own. John plays off the threat as follows:

"I yawned and stretched my arms into the air. 'Well, I can see this conference is over. Thanks for the beer.' Then I threw my empty bottle way in the back of the tomb" (102).

John acts as if he isn't worried about Norton's threats and questions. By the end of the chapter, though, John shows that he does care about what happens to Mr. Pignati because he says that he would kill Norton if he ever did anything to the nice old man.