In Chap­ter 15, titled “The Worm,” Mrs. Fio­r­ia Caris­si­mi learns about a tumul­tuous event involv­ing a Jew­ish store­keep­er and a deaf Negro boy, Dodo, from Vivana Agnel­lo, pres­i­dent of the Vol­un­teer Women’s Asso­ci­a­tion. Vivana spread a star­tling rumor that the Jew­ish fam­i­ly had hid­den the boy to extort mon­ey from the locals but still called the police on him. Fioria’s indif­fer­ence towards Vivana’s gos­sip high­lights her prag­mat­ic nature; she is less con­cerned with the scan­dal than with main­tain­ing her rela­tion­ships and sta­bil­i­ty with­in her com­mu­ni­ty. Her con­flict with Vivana stems from the lat­ter’s con­dem­na­tion of a fel­low Ital­ian, Euge­nio Fabi­cel­li, whom she accused of mak­ing a poor busi­ness deci­sion.

Dur­ing a vis­it with Pia, her friend and fel­low Sicil­ian, Fio­r­ia dis­cuss­es the inci­dent involv­ing the boy. Pia express­es frus­tra­tion about hid­ing chil­dren in their impov­er­ished com­mu­ni­ty, while Fio­r­ia pro­vides some details she has gath­ered. The con­ver­sa­tion hints at Pia’s trou­bled rela­tion­ship with her hus­band, Mat­teo, and a grow­ing ten­sion regard­ing Doc Roberts, imply­ing poten­tial­ly trou­bling ties.

Fioria’s mater­nal instincts are high­light­ed as she wor­ries about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of her son, Enzo, get­ting involved in the chaot­ic events unfold­ing in their neigh­bor­hood. Enzo’s close­ness with Fat­ty, the town’s noto­ri­ous Negro, rais­es alarms for Fio­r­ia, prompt­ing her to inter­vene after learn­ing that the police were involved in a dis­tur­bance at the store linked to Dodo. As she march­es to con­front Enzo, she adopts author­i­ta­tive Ital­ian tones, demand­ing he refrain from med­dling with the police—an admo­ni­tion reflect­ing her desire to pro­tect him from future trou­bles.

The nar­ra­tive shifts as Fio­r­ia con­fronts the group gath­ered at Fatty’s jook joint, where the mood trans­forms as she ques­tions her son about the scan­dal. The scene blends humor with ten­sion, while Fio­r­ia chas­tis­es Enzo, trans­lat­ing her fears and frus­tra­tions across cul­tur­al divides. Fat­ty, wit­ness­ing the inter­ac­tion, becomes increas­ing­ly con­cerned about the pre­car­i­ous bal­ance of their pre­car­i­ous com­mu­ni­ty, espe­cial­ly as gos­sip and rumors swirl around the inci­dent at the Heav­en & Earth Gro­cery Store.

Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter encap­su­lates the inter­sec­tions of com­mu­ni­ty, moth­er­hood, and the com­plex­i­ties of soci­etal dis­putes, focus­ing on Fio­r­i­a’s pro­tec­tive nature amidst the chaos sur­round­ing Dodo and the pos­si­ble reper­cus­sions it could have for her son.

Mrs. Fio­r­ia Caris­si­mi, moth­er of Enzo Caris­si­mi, known as “Big Soap,” learns about a com­mo­tion involv­ing a Jew­ish store­keep­er and a deaf Negro boy from two sources, main­ly through gos­sip in her church group. The sto­ry sug­gests that Jews tried to hide the boy to pro­tect him but end­ed up call­ing the police them­selves. Dis­crep­an­cies in the sto­ry raise doubts among the com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers about its truth.

Fio­r­ia, while not too involved in group gos­sip or city news, finds her­self amidst dis­cus­sions about this inci­dent. She vis­its her friend Pia, who shares crit­i­cal views on the sit­u­a­tion, includ­ing dis­trust towards a local doc­tor, hint­ing at per­son­al griev­ances.

The nar­ra­tive then shifts to a deep­er com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tion sur­round­ing the event, reveal­ing the com­plex­i­ties of liv­ing on “the Hill,” where rumors, racial ten­sions, and social pol­i­tics inter­twine. Fio­r­i­a’s inter­est is part­ly per­son­al and part­ly due to her com­mu­ni­ty’s involve­ment, includ­ing her son’s rela­tion­ship with the Negro com­mu­ni­ty, espe­cial­ly his friend­ship with “Fat­ty,” a notable fig­ure with­in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Fio­r­ia con­fronts her son and Fat­ty about the inci­dent at the gro­cery store involv­ing the boy, iden­ti­fied as Dodo, and a Jew­ish woman named Chona. The dis­course reveals that Dodo’s moth­er died after an acci­dent with a stove, leav­ing him in the care of his aunt and uncle who sought help to avoid state inter­ven­tion. Amidst the con­fu­sion of what hap­pened to Chona, there’s an under­ly­ing ten­sion involv­ing racial dynam­ics, police involve­ment, and com­mu­ni­ty dis­trust toward cer­tain indi­vid­u­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly the men­tioned doc­tor.

The chap­ter por­trays a micro­cosm of racism, mis­trust, and the blend­ing of truth and rumor with­in a small-town set­ting. Fio­r­i­a’s deter­mi­na­tion to uncov­er the truth amidst the chaos, cou­pled with her pro­tec­tive nature over her son and the com­mu­ni­ty’s youth, show­cas­es the tan­gled webs of per­son­al rela­tion­ships and com­mu­ni­ty dynam­ics in the face of adver­si­ty. As Fio­r­ia ques­tions those involved, she uncov­ers lay­ers of mis­in­for­ma­tion and con­cern over the well­be­ing of the vul­ner­a­ble, illus­trat­ing the chal­lenges of nav­i­gat­ing soci­etal prob­lems with­in tight­ly-knit com­mu­ni­ties.