In this chap­ter of *Mani­ac Magee*, Grayson expe­ri­ences a break­through moment by final­ly read­ing *The Lit­tle Engine That Could* cov­er to cov­er. It takes him near­ly an hour, leav­ing him sweat-drenched and exhaust­ed, yet ful­filled. His young com­pan­ion, referred to as the kid, reacts unex­pect­ed­ly; instead of cel­e­brat­ing wild­ly as he had pre­vi­ous­ly, he sim­ply smiles from a dis­tance, show­ing his respect for Grayson’s effort by keep­ing his dis­tance to ensure that Grayson read it him­self. When Grayson fin­ish­es, the kid express­es his joy by clench­ing his fist and say­ing “A‑men,” explain­ing that it’s a way to acknowl­edge some­thing enjoy­able with­out need­ing a prayer.

After this heart­felt inter­ac­tion, Grayson tran­si­tions into a nur­tur­ing role. The kid requests a corn muf­fin, and Grayson, now equipped with kitchen sup­plies thanks to the boy’s thought­ful gifts, hap­pi­ly offers his culi­nary skills. Their ban­ter show­cas­es their grow­ing bond, as Grayson asks if the muf­fin should be toast­ed and if he should add but­ter, reflect­ing a play­ful cama­raderie. They both find com­fort in these shared moments, enjoy­ing the sim­ple meal of a corn muf­fin and apple juice.

As the evening unfolds, the kid invites Grayson to stay overnight, but the old man hes­i­tates, feel­ing it’s pre­pos­ter­ous. Yet, the boy insists and lov­ing­ly pre­pares the makeshift sleep­ing area, lay­ing down a mat and pro­vid­ing a blan­ket. Grayson’s ini­tial resis­tance fades as he sur­ren­ders to exhaus­tion, feel­ing cher­ished for the first time in decades. The chap­ter con­veys themes of com­pan­ion­ship, sup­port, and the impor­tance of embrac­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. Grayson, who had long seen him­self as a fail­ure since dis­ap­point­ing a scout years ago, finds solace in the boy’s affec­tion as he drifts off to sleep, whis­per­ing “A‑men” into the warmth of their friend­ship.