Masterpiece

Mama greets Marvin and bursts into tears. She pulls him into a tight hug, asking where he’s been. Papa tells Marvin they were worried about him. Papa regrets letting Marvin stay in James’s room. Marvin begins to tell them that he was at a museum, but barely gets the words out before his parents launch into a rant about how dangerous it is to leave the apartment. They ask him to elaborate, which he agrees to do over dinner.

Sitting around their dinner table, which is a rectangular pink eraser, the beetles feast on crumbs and droppings from the Pompadays’ meals: cheese cubes, chicken skin, bits of broccoli and potato chip crumbs, as well as a Life Saver for dessert. Marvin explains the situation with Christina, the Dürer drawings, the copy, and the staged theft. Mama wishes she could have seen Marvin’s copy of Fortitude and wonders why humans would steal art they can’t display. Marvin explains that some humans want things just to have and admire on their own.

Papa comments that humans are always making trouble for themselves. Marvin tells them he needs to make another copy for Christina’s plan, but Mama and Papa agree that it’s too dangerous for him to go back and forbid him from participating further.