The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

The next morning, Callie wakes up to find that the temperature has dropped 40 degrees overnight. After school, Callie and Lula jump rope all the way home, and Callie realizes that she has grown taller and needs a new jump rope. As Thanksgiving approaches, the job of caring for the family’s three turkeys—one for the family, one for the “hired help,” and one for the poor—falls on Travis, who becomes attached to the turkeys, naming them and caring for them for hours every day. Callie’s parents both try to warn Travis that getting attached to them isn’t a good idea, but Travis does not listen. When Callie asks Viola why Travis is allowed to care for the turkeys, Viola reveals that it was actually Callie’s turn, but Harry talked her parents out of letting her care for the birds.

As Thanksgiving approaches, Travis lets one of his turkeys out of the pen to help him escape, but the turkey returns home the next morning. Callie tries to devise a plan to ensure that Travis is not upset by the turkeys’ inevitable demise. At first, Callie proposes to her parents that they trade Travis’s turkeys with someone else’s; her mother agrees as long as the turkeys are the exact same weight.