The Jeffermans don’t care who poisoned the Tanners’ trapeze artist Details of the tragic death of Donovan Butty, the out-of-work trapeze artist living with next-door neighbors Bob and Fiona Tanner since birth, fail to faze the Jeffermans. Fiona Tanner is sure Elaine knows something. Something that could change everything. Louis Jefferman buys high and sells low It was the worst day ever, Louis tells his children, Eliza and Isaac, in a series of hastily scribbled sticky notes. But everything is ok now. No one will go without food or clothes this year! Except their half-brother, Rudy, who they have never met and is living in a YMCA somewhere in Cincinnati with his common-law wife, Marlene. Elaine Jefferman orders a pool (or does she?) A month after the pool was installed in their backyard as planned, Elaine begins to have doubts. When she confronts the contractor, a man named Reynolds, he also can’t remember how the pool got there. Reynolds checks his records. Nothing. Then Reynolds remembers that the pool was actually supposed to go in the neighbors’ yard. Except it wasn’t a pool the neighbors wanted, it was a flying trapeze. Elaine and Reynolds both stand at the water’s edge wondering what to do next. The Jeffermans buy their first home It’s beautiful, Elaine Jefferman tells the real estate agent. Louis Jefferman admires the gently sloping front yard. They sign the papers that afternoon. As soon as the agent leaves, the Jeffermans open a bottle of champagne in the backseat of their Ford Bronco. An eerie silence falls over their celebration as they both realize they forgot to ask the agent about municipal burrowing code.
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