The Pigman

3 Pages 718 Words

The Pigman by Paul Zindel is a story about two sophomore high school kids who develop a relationship with a lonely old man. John Conlan the class clown and Lorraine Jensen the shy girl have become good friends since she moved to town a year ago. One of their after school activities is prank calling people. This eventually becomes to dull, so they made up a contest to see who could keep the person who answered the phone on the longest. This afternoon it was Lorraine’s turn to cover her eyes and point to a name. She ended up picking a man who only lived a few blocks away. This is how she first met The Pigman. When Angelo Pignati answered the phone that day, Lorraine pretended that she was asking for donations for the L & J Fund, Lorraine and John Fund. Mr. Pignati finally said he would donate to their cause, and they agreed to pick up a check the next day. Eventually Lorraine and John ended up spending almost every afternoon or every evening with The Pigman. They had this informal relationship where Mr. Pignati liked to do things for them in return for their company. Mr. Pignati’s favorite spot to visit was the city zoo where he would send time with Bobo his pet baboon. One day while they were chasing each other through The Pigman’s house on roller skates, he had a heart attack. Mr. Pignati had to stay in the hospital for a few days and asked John and Lorraine to keep an eye on his house. They agreed. This is where thing started to go wrong between them and The Pigman. John decided that they needed to throw a party before The Pigman came home from the hospital. That’s just what they did too, they threw the biggest party of the year. Then they got the surprise of their lives when The Pigman came home early. They had just destroyed his house, and most of all they had just ruined their friendship. They called to apologize to him, and they wanted to meet him at the zoo to visit Bobo. When they got to the monkey ho...