A Boy Called Bat

Bat eats his snack and then goes to his room, which is his “favorite place in the whole world” (6). He can arrange his room how he wants it, and no one else in the house changes it. There are three baskets in the house for items that go to Bat’s room: one for books, one for clean laundry, and one for “miscellaneous stuff.” His mother sets the baskets outside Bat’s room when they are full, and he takes them and puts his things away.

Bat’s mother rearranged the items in his dresser once, and he became irate. She didn’t understand his organizational system. He explained that he arranged the drawers by the items he wore together—shirts and shorts in one drawer for warm days, and sweaters and pants in another for cool days. Bat also had a drawer for clothes he did not like to wear. His mother moved two of the shirts he didn’t like to wear into the “warm days” drawer, and never touched his organizational system again. Janie also made Bat a “Please Knock” sign for the door because she is better at things that require fine motor skills, or “hand things.”

Bat checks the clock and sees that his mother should be home in 46 minutes. He sits on his beanbag chair and reads his animal encyclopedia. Bat wants to be a vet when he grows up, like his mother. While most of her patients are cats and dogs, she does take on the occasional “exotic” case, such as a hawk that had been shot with a BB gun.

Bat and Janie’s mother is 15 minutes late, and Bat wants to call the police, but Janie says this is not an emergency. She suggests Bat call their mother, but he does not want to. He is scared that she might be driving, and that she might crash if she answers her cellphone. Janie says that if Bat had friends, he could hang out with them instead of bothering her.

Valerie returns home. Overexcited, Bat asks his mother if she went to the store for more yogurt. He is angry when she says “no.” Valerie tries to calm him down by saying she has a good reason for being late. Bat holds onto his fury until his mother tells him that a baby animal caused her lateness.

While his mother opens the back of her station wagon and pulls out a cardboard box, Bat questions what type of animal she has. He runs through a list of potential animals—kitten, duckling, hoglet (baby hedgehog). He then worries that she might have brought home a baby human, but his mother says she would not put a baby human in a cardboard box.

In his excitement, Bat yells in Janie’s face that their mother has a baby animal, and Janie reminds him to stay 12 inches away from her, which is one of many rules he must follow around his sister. Valerie asks Janie about her math test, and Bat whines, bounces, and sucks on his shirt collar from the stress of the anticipation. Valerie switches the topic back to the mystery animal in the cardboard box, and tells her children to come into the kitchen with her.

Valerie sets the box on a table, and Bat opens it. Janie complains, “It’s just a bunch of rags” (22). Valerie picks up the wad of fabric and adjusts it to reveal the head of a newborn baby skunk, or kit. When Janie realizes her mother brought home a baby skunk, she is shocked, but Valerie explains that she had to bring the kit home because he is an orphan.

Bat pushes Janie, who is in his way, and his mother tells him that he needs to remain calm, so he doesn’t scare the kit. He quietly hisses at Janie, and their mother tells them to sit down, so she can explain the story of how she ended up with a baby skunk.

Valerie reminds Bat of the skunk they had smelled that morning on the way to school. A pregnant skunk had been hit by a car, and students from the nearby college brought it to her clinic. The mother skunk was badly injured, and Valerie could not save her or her other kits. She verified that the mother skunk was not carrying diseases, meaning that the kit she did save is healthy. Bat calls the story “awesome,” and Janie misunderstands him and admonishes him for saying so when the mother skunk and other babies died. Instead of arguing, Bat drops the subject.

Before he has the chance to ask her, Valerie tells Bat that they can’t keep the baby skunk for long. She contacted a rescue organization, but they will not have room for the kit for another month. Her plan is to care for the kit for a month until he can go to the rescue. Then, he will be released back into the wild when he is old enough. After she finishes her speech, she passes the baby skunk to Bat, who is elated.

Janie asks if the skunk can spray, and Valerie says not yet. The question makes Bat realize that he doesn’t know much about skunks, other than that they are omnivorous mammals that can spray a scent deterrent. He wants to learn more about skunks, so he can take care of the kit.

Bat wants to feed the skunk, and his mother explains that they will have to feed him puppy formula. Meanwhile, Janie wants to go to her friend Ezra’s house. Janie and Ezra are best friends, but Bat does not like Ezra because he is “loud and annoying and a mean tease” (30). Although he does not like Ezra, Bat is often jealous that he is not invited to these playdates. But this time, he is too excited about the kit to feel jealous of Janie’s friend.

Janie leaves, and Valerie teaches Bat how to feed the baby skunk by squeezing out a few drops of formula from a syringe. Bat takes over the job. As he feeds the baby skunk, he accidentally announces, “I love him” (34). His mother laughs and says she might get jealous, and reminds Bat that they will have to give the skunk to the rescue organization. Silently, Bat decides he will try to keep the baby skunk.