The Pinballs

Three kids, Carlie, Harvey, and Thomas J. (for Jefferson) go to live in a foster home with Mr. and Mrs. Mason, an infertile couple. The Masons have been foster parents for 17 kids. Carlie is the most outwardly hostile toward her situation, and quite skeptical about having trust in others. She plans to stay there until her family work out their problems. She must stay because her last stepfather gave her a concussion. Two other children arrive, Harvey, who has two broken legs; and Thomas J., who grew up living with two elderly twin sisters who found him abandoned in front of their farmhouse when he was two. The twins are now both in the hospital, Thomas J. means well but has never learned how to express himself. He gets help from Mr. Mason who had similar problems in his childhood. Harvey is very unhappy and needs others badly, although he has trouble admitting it. Eventually, he confesses that his father accidentally ran over his legs with his car while drunk, even though he originally told everyone he was a quarterback and his legs were broken playing football. Before the injury, his parents fought and his mother left to join a commune. His father denies that she ever wrote back to Harvey since she left. At first, Carlie feels neglected. She considers running away but eventually decides to take charge of her life and stop being a defenseless "pinball" bounced from home to home. When Harvey is in the hospital after his legs became infected, Carlie, and Thomas J. give him a puppy for his birthday, which he always wanted and it helps him get him through the pain. In the end, Carlie determines that the three of them are not pinballs, because, unlike pinballs, they can control where they are going and can be helpful to each other.