Swindle

Chapter 2 provides backstory about the Rockford house, which is slated to be torn down. Griffin proposed the land be turned into a skate park at a town hall meeting, but the adults ignored him, deciding instead to build a Cedarville museum. Griffin decided to stage a sleep-in at the old house as a form of protest, hoping the adults would notice that kids would not be put off so easily. He believes that his classmates missed an opportunity to stand up for themselves by failing to come. While Ben sleeps, Griffin explores the spooky house. A bat flies into his hair, causing him to panic. When it flies away, Griffin realizes he is in a room with an antique desk. Intrigued, he explores the desk and finds a secret drawer, inside which is a baseball card labeled “George Herman (Babe) Ruth” (15). He thinks of his parents, who are always arguing about finances, and hopes that selling the card can solve their problems.

In the morning, the sounds of demolition machinery wake Griffin and Ben. They climb out the window, escaping moments before the building is demolished. Once they are safe, Griffin shows Ben the baseball card. Ben tells Griffin that the card is not his, but Griffin argues that it would have been destroyed with the abandoned house. They decide to get the card authenticated at Palomino’s Emporium of Collectibles and Memorabilia. When the boys arrive at the Emporium, they are stunned by the high prices on the vintage action figures. The “tall, cadaverous” assistant manager (23) directs them to the store’s owner, Palomino, who is behind the counter putting comic books in plastic sleeves. 

Palomino is “short, stocky and surprisingly young […]” (23). He has curly hair and wears thick glasses, which make his eyes look cartoonishly round. When the boys show Palomino the baseball card, he explains that it is a reproduction rather than an original, citing certain details, such as the border and the advertisement on the back of the card. He offers the boys $200 for the card, and after the sale, he puts the card in a small safe below the register. Griffin challenges him about the card’s value, since Palomino put it immediately in the safe, but the proprietor says that it is standard practice in his business. Palomino invites the boys to try to lift the safe, which they insist would be easy to steal. When they try to lift it, they find it is bolted to the floor.

When Griffin gets home, he sees Palomino on TV bragging about a valuable 1920 Babe Ruth card he plans to auction for over $200,000. He explains that, because the card is a rare misprint that features Babe Ruth in a Red Sox uniform, it could fetch as much as $1 million. Incensed, Griffin bikes back to the Emporium and confronts Palomino. At first, Palomino denies that the card he presented on TV was the same card that Griffin sold him. He tells Griffin that in the world of collectibles, possession is “ten-tenths of the law” (38) and that Griffin could never prove that the card was his. To get Griffin out of his store, Palomino whistles for his fierce Doberman guard dog, Luthor. As Griffin leaves, Palomino tells him not to come back. On his way home, Griffin thinks about how to respond to being cheated. He thinks about filing a lawsuit but remembers that his family cannot afford it. Griffin still believes that he can save his family by selling the card, so he decides to steal it back.

At school, Griffin tells Ben about his plan to steal the card from the Emporium. When Ben tells Griffin that stealing is wrong, Griffin tells him that he is not stealing, but “stealing back” (41). To Griffin, that is a big difference. Ben tells him that Palomino’s name sounds like “Swindle” (42), and that is what they call Palomino for the rest of the narrative. Griffin interacts with some of his classmates: the bully, Darren; the girl who loves animals, Savannah Drysdale; and the rock climber, Antonia “Pitch” Benson. All of them have an excuse about why they did not come to sleep over at the Rockford house. During class, Griffin proposes a new plan to steal the card back from Swindle. Ben refuses. When Griffin asks him why, Ben responds: “Where do I start? It’s against the law, we’ll never get away with it to begin with, and it’s just plain wrong” (48). This is the first time Ben has refused to go along with one of Griffin’s plans, and Griffin feels lost and helpless.