Christmas at Nickel involves elaborate holiday displays that attract visitors not only from Florida but from neighboring states as well. When Desmond finds a small can of horse medicine inside a maintenance shed, Jaime suggests spiking a supervisor’s drink with it. The boys indulge their fantasies about which abusive staff member to give it to, and they tentatively decide on Earl, an alcoholic who has some mysterious past conflict with Jaime. Jaime is the most enthusiastic about this plan, arguing that the staff holiday luncheon would be the perfect time to execute it. In the end, however, the boys decide the plan is too risky, and they abandon it.

One afternoon, after completing their Community Service rounds in Eleanor, Harper briefly leaves Turner and Elwood alone to wander unsupervised down Main Street. They engage in a hypothetical discussion about escape: What would be the best way to do it? Turner has a plan: he would steal clothes from a clothesline, raid a house they’ve made deliveries to for supplies, make his way south instead of north, and, most importantly, he would go alone—another boy would only hinder him. Turner’s life is not so different from other Nickel boys: absentee father, deceased mother.