In Chap­ter XIV, the nar­ra­tor reflects on the unique tal­ents of the Beau­mont fam­i­ly, acknowl­edg­ing that their dif­fer­ences are intrin­sic to their iden­ti­ty. The nar­ra­tor recalls a for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence with Grand­pa, who explained the family’s extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ties short­ly after the loss of Grand­ma Dol­lop. Grand­pa shared sto­ries of their ances­tors and how their spe­cial “savvies” were inher­it­ed, much like phys­i­cal traits. He illus­trat­ed this by recount­ing tales of var­i­ous rel­a­tives, some of whom used their tal­ents for good while oth­ers, like Grand­ma Dol­lop’s sis­ter Jubilee, wast­ed hers on theft.

Grand­pa empha­sized that a savvy isn’t super­nat­ur­al but rather an innate gift that man­i­fests along with the chal­lenges of fam­i­ly life. The nar­ra­tor notes how her moth­er, Mom­ma, believed that many ordi­nary peo­ple pos­sess savvies but fail to rec­og­nize them, with exam­ples illus­trat­ing diverse skills such as mak­ing excep­tion­al jam or avoid­ing mos­qui­to bites. The under­stand­ing of savvies evolved; they were not mere­ly pecu­liar tal­ents but more of a dis­tinct kind of know-how.

As the nar­ra­tor con­vers­es with Will Junior, explain­ing their family’s gen­er­al char­ac­ter­is­tics, she high­lights the com­mon thread—the Beau­monts are like oth­ers but have unique abil­i­ties that make their expe­ri­ences dis­tinct. Yet, when pressed for specifics about her savvy, the nar­ra­tor hes­i­tates, recall­ing famil­ial rules about dis­cre­tion and shar­ing only with those they trust the most.

The nar­ra­tive tran­si­tions to a moment from the past when the narrator’s par­ents met dur­ing a car­ni­val. Mom­ma, who was effort­less­ly skilled at toss­ing rings, intrigued Pop­pa, lead­ing to an amus­ing exchange filled with charm­ing ban­ter. This fur­ther show­cas­es the fam­i­ly’s delight­ful mix of tal­ents and quirks. The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in the present as the bus ride reveals ten­sions between the boys, hint­ing at the nar­ra­tor’s desire for peace and the loom­ing dynam­ics of her spe­cial fam­i­ly lega­cy, all as they nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of their lives amid ordi­nary events.