Tunes for Bears to Dance To

Telling himself he will go to the craft center but not smash the village, Henry races through the streets. However, he can’t help thinking of the rewards if he does destroy the village. George greets him and says Mr. Levine is resting up for his big day. Henry looks around and sees a wooden mallet. He slips inside the storeroom with the mallet and pictures his mother as a hostess instead of a waitress, as well as the monument placed on Eddie’s grave. He falls asleep and wakes up when he hears a rat in the storeroom.

Picking up the mallet, Henry stumbles to the door and walks to Mr. Levine’s bench. He takes the sheet off the village and touches the figure that represents Mr. Levine. Raising the mallet over his head, he is unable to move, although he tells himself to let the mallet drop “like an atomic bomb falling from a plane” (88). Then he sees a rat leap onto the bench and run among the buildings and figures. Henry gasps and drops the mallet, breaking part of the village. The figure of Mr. Levine falls. The bench breaks in two, and the little farmhouse and figures disappear into the crack. Henry cries out in anguish, and his eyes fill with tears. As he heads for the door, he thinks that he didn’t want to do it, but “he had done it, after all” (90).

Henry steps out into a thunderstorm and comes face to face with Mr. Hairston, who asks if the village is smashed. Henry says it is but that it was an accident because he dropped the mallet. The grocer congratulates him and says Henry will be rewarded with a raise, his mother’s promotion, and the monument. Henry asks why it was so important to Mr. Hairston to smash Mr. Levine’s village, and Mr. Hairston replies, “He’s a Jew” (93).

Henry persists, asking why he had to be the one to do it. Mr. Hairston mockingly says it was because Henry was so good—“so innocent.” Henry, the truth dawning on him, realizes that Mr. Hairston didn’t just care about Mr. Levine and his village: He didn’t want Henry “to be good anymore” (93). The grocer affirms this truth, saying that Henry is just like everyone else in his pursuit of the rewards Mr. Hairston offered. Henry protests that he doesn’t want the rewards and that he is quitting the job. The grocer says Henry has to accept what he offers: They had a bargain, and the smashing will mean nothing otherwise. Henry continues to resist and runs away. He shivers because he finally knows what Mr. Hairston is.

The family moves back to Frenchtown three weeks later, the day after Henry’s father is discharged from the hospital. His mother says that they can’t run away from the past and should not try to forget Eddie. Henry’s father now smiles sometimes and helps to pack for the move.

Henry has been avoiding the grocery store and the craft center. He looks for a news story about the exhibition or the village being smashed but doesn’t find one. He does meet Doris but can’t find the words to tell her that her father is an evil man, instead calling him weak and afraid. He urges Doris to stand up to him, as Henry himself did in the end. Henry realizes he needs to help Doris and says he is moving but will come back to visit. She touches his cheek and thanks him.

Henry goes to the craft center to say goodbye. George greets him cheerfully. At his new bench, Mr. Levine is busy working on the village, which has fewer buildings and figures but still exists. He beams at Henry. George explains that some “wise guys” damaged the village but didn’t finish the job. He tells Henry to look at Mr. Levine, a survivor who has just started over again. The exhibition has been postponed.

Henry explains that he is moving, and Mr. Levine embraces him. The elderly man gives Henry a tiny, smiling model of himself, which Henry promises himself he will keep forever in memory of the summer. He hopes someday he will be able to return the little figure’s smile. Back in Frenchtown, he finds Eddie’s old bat and ball and places them on the grave, thinking that for this moment, Eddie has his monument. He prays for his parents, Eddie, Doris, Mr. Levine, and George, concluding, “Deliver us from evil.” At this he thinks of Mr. Hairston, but then he whispers, “Forgive him” and thinks, “Forgive me too” (100). The moon comes out, illuminating the bat and ball.