Eleven-year-old Ben’s parents upset him when they insist that he spend Friday night at Granny’s house. He complains that she is boring, smells like cabbage, and only wants to play Scrabble. Ben greets Granny at her door, annoyed that she talks to him in a babyish voice. Ben believes that his parents don’t want to spend time with Granny either, and that her house is “just a convenient place to dump him on a Friday night” (19). Ben is devastated when she tells him that they will be having cabbage soup for dinner while playing Scrabble.

Ben resentfully stirs his soup, thinking about how much he hates being at Granny’s house. He dislikes how she often makes him go to bed early, has a broken TV, and has an irritating faulty hearing aid that squeaks. Ben also dislikes the fact that Granny encourages him to read, something he hates doing. Nonetheless, her taste in books intrigues him, as she is always reading crime novels. He wonders why she is so interested in crime and gangs since her own life is so different from a criminal’s.