Down at the Dinghy (Salinger)
from the Collection âNine Storiesâ
Short Summary
Near a lakefront home on an October afternoon, four-year-old Lionel Tannenbaum sat in his fatherâs dinghy, upset and intending to run away, something he often did. Lionel was sensitive and emotional, quiet but observant, and wore khaki shorts and a T-shirt.
At home, two housekeepers discussed Lionelâs troubling behavior. His mother, Boo Boo Tannenbaum, a patient and imaginative woman of twenty-five with brittle, colorless hair, heard him out and playfully coaxed him to explain his sadness. She brought a gift, which Lionel defiantly tossed into the lake before bursting into tears and admitting the cause.
Upset, Lionel revealed the source of his distress: "Sandraâtold Mrs. Smellâthat Daddy's a bigâsloppyâkike." Boo Boo reassured him gently and comforted him. Calmed, they returned happily home together.
"Sandraâtold Mrs. Smellâthat Daddy's a bigâsloppyâkike."
Detailed Summary
Division into sections is editorial.
The Conversation Between Sandra and Mrs. Snell
On an Indian Summer afternoon, shortly after four o'clock, Sandra the maid repeatedly looked out of the lake-front window in the kitchen with concern. She sat down at the table opposite Mrs. Snell, who was having tea before leaving for the day. Mrs. Snell wore her trademark black felt hat, the same one she had worn for the past three summers.
Sandra repeatedly insisted she wasn't going to worry about something, though it clearly bothered her. The two women discussed Lionel, the four-year-old son of the house, who had apparently run away again. Sandra complained about how the boy moved silently around the house, forcing her to watch every word she said.
"I mean ya gotta weigh every word ya say around him," Sandra said. "It drives ya loony." "I still can't drink this," Mrs. Snell said. "... That's terrible. When ya gotta weigh every word ya say and all."
Boo Boo's Arrival and History of Lionel's Runaways
Their conversation was interrupted when Boo Boo Tannenbaum, the lady of the house, entered the kitchen. She was a small, hipless twenty-five-year-old woman with colorless hair and large ears, dressed in knee-length jeans and a black turtleneck pullover.
"Her joke of a name aside, her general unprettiness aside, she wasâin terms of permanently memorable, immoderately perceptive, small-area facesâa stunning and final girl."
Boo Boo was looking for pickles to bring to Lionel, hoping to lure him out of the dinghy where he was hiding. When Mrs. Snell mentioned that Lionel was running away, Boo Boo confirmed it matter-of-factly. She then shared that Lionel had been running away regularly since he was two years old, though never getting very far.
"He's been hitting the road regularly since he was two. But never very hard. I think the farthest he ever gotâin the city, at leastâwas to the Mall in Central Park. Just a couple of blocks from home."
Boo Boo explained that once, when Lionel was three, he ran away to Central Park after a child told him, "You stink, kid." Another time, he hid in the basement laundry room because his friend Naomi told him she had a worm in her thermos bottle. After sharing these stories, Boo Boo left to find her son.
Boo Boo's Search for Lionel at the Dock
Boo Boo walked across her front lawn toward the lake, where she could see Lionel sitting in his father's dinghy at the end of the pier. The boat was tied up and stripped of its sails. The brilliant October sun made it difficult to keep Lionel in focus from a distance. When she reached the end of the pier, she squatted down and greeted him playfully, calling him "Pirate" and "Dirty dog."
Lionel didn't look up but demonstrated his sailing ability by swinging the tiller. When Boo Boo playfully claimed to be an admiral, Lionel insisted she was just a lady, saying his father had told him so. Boo Boo continued the game, pretending to sound a secret bugle call that "only admirals are allowed to hear." This caught Lionel's attention, and he asked her to do it again, but she refused.
Boo Boo offered to blow more secret bugle calls if Lionel would tell her why he was running away, but he refused. She reminded him that he had promised not to run away anymore, but he denied making such a promise. When Boo Boo tried to get into the dinghy, Lionel firmly told her that nobody was allowed to come in. She expressed her loneliness and desire to be with him.
"I'm sorry to hear it," she said, finally. "I'd just love to come down in your boat. I'm so lonesome for you. I miss you so much. I've been all alone in the house all day without anybody to talk to."
The Reason Behind Lionel's Escape
Lionel remained stubborn, refusing to let his mother into the boat or explain why he was running away. In defiance, he flipped a pair of underwater goggles overboard with his foot. Boo Boo mentioned that the goggles belonged to his Uncle Webb and had once belonged to his Uncle Seymour, but Lionel said he didn't care.
Boo Boo then showed Lionel a small package containing a key chain with ten keys, similar to his father's but with more keys. When Lionel eagerly asked for it, Boo Boo hesitated, saying she should throw it in the lake. Lionel protested that it was his. Boo Boo finally tossed him the package, but to her surprise, Lionel immediately threw it into the lake and began crying intensely.
Boo Boo quickly climbed down into the dinghy and took Lionel onto her lap, comforting him by saying that sailors don't cry except in extreme circumstances. Finally, Lionel revealed the reason for his distress: "Sandra told Mrs. Smell that Daddy's a big sloppy kike." Boo Boo flinched slightly but maintained her composure.
"Sailors don't cry, baby. Sailors never cry. Only when their ships go down. Or when they're shipwrecked, on rafts and all, with nothing to drink exceptâ"
Reconciliation and Return
Boo Boo gently asked Lionel if he knew what a "kike" was. After a moment, Lionel answered into his mother's neck that it was "one of those things that go up in the air with string you hold." Boo Boo held him close, relieved by his innocent misunderstanding.
"It's one of those things that go up in the air," he said. "With string you hold."
Boo Boo reassured her son that what he had heard wasn't too terrible. She gently bit the rim of his ear and asked if he knew what a kike was, confirming his confusion of the slur with a kite. She then suggested they go to town for pickles and bread, eat in the car, and then pick up his father at the station. Afterward, they would all go for a boat ride together.
"Well, that isn't too terrible," Boo Boo said, holding him between the two vises of her arms and legs. "That isn't the worst that could happen." She gently bit the rim of the boy's ear. "Do you know what a kike is, baby?"
Lionel agreed to this plan, and they left the dinghy together. Rather than walking back to the house, they raced each other, with Lionel winning the race.
"They didn't walk back to the house; they raced. Lionel won."