Plot

Tod befriends a 13-year-old boy and inadvertently worsens the boy's troubled relationship with his foster parents.

Tod, still alone,travels to Corpus Christi, Texas for a job at a grain processing plant and encounters a thieving 13 year old boy. The boy and his sister are orphans who dislike their foster parents and are looking for a new life in a different town-and a father figure. Tod is a possible candidate.—dubchi

In Corpus Christi, Texas, Tod helps a young teen-aged boy escape from a group of other boys who are chasing him. He tells Tod the boys tried to steal some money from their tennis club, he trying to fight the group off. But as the boy runs off, Tod learns that it was the other way around: the boy in question was the one who stole the tennis club money, he who also now manages to steal Tod's wallet in the process. Visited by social worker Evan Corelli, Tod learns the boy's story. He is thirteen year old Joby Paxton, he and his younger sister Susie Paxton who were orphaned six months ago when their parents were killed in an accident. Mr. and Mrs. Paxton were working class people who taught Joby how to be self-reliant, hence Joby's quick wit and ingenuity. Corelli placed Joby and Susie in the foster care of a loving couple, the Conwells, who, without children of their own, have tried to provide Joby and Susie with unconditional love. Three weeks ago, Joby ran off and has been on the run since. Corelli knows that Joby now has Tod in his sights as a mark in whatever scheme Joby has in mind. All Corelli asks is that Tod contact him not if but when Joby resurfaces in Tod's life. True to perceptive Corelli's prediction, Joby does reenter Tod's life of his own free will with wallet in hand with no money taken. Spending time with Joby, Tod knows why Joby ran away from the Conwells. Tod has to figure out what to do about the situation: whether just to turn Joby over to Corelli with Joby probably running away again, or to let Joby play out his game whatever it is to see where it leads. If Tod chooses the latter, he may get a few physical and emotional bumps and bruises along the way.—Huggo