The Bell Bandit

Nine-year-old Jessie Treski is in the car with her mother and brother on the way to visit their grandma for their annual New Year’s Eve visit. Jessie thinks about how this year’s trip feels different because her 10-year-old brother, Evan, sits in the front seat. Jessie calls out to Evan, but he does not respond, unable to hear her over the music from his headphones.

Jessie asks her mother why their grandmother set her house on fire. Mrs. Treski insists it was an accident and explains that it “could happen to anyone” (4). Jessie thinks about all the times her grandmother used the stove in the past without causing a fire.

All the changes threaten to upend Jessie’s favorite tradition: spending New Year’s Eve with Grandma and gathering with the community at the top of Lovell’s Hill around the old iron bell kept there. At midnight, the youngest and the oldest in the crowd step forward and ring the bell together “as loudly and joyously and for as long as they wanted” (6). This year, everything feels wrong to Jessie because she and her family may not spend New Year’s at Grandma’s due to their grandma’s health concerns.