My fingers were trembling, because the wallet was fat. There were eleven hundred pesos inside, and that – let me tell you – is good money. A chicken costs one-eighty, a beer is fifteen. One hour in the video hall, twenty-five.
I sat there laughing and saying a prayer. Gardo was punching me, and I don’t mind telling you, we almost danced. I gave him five hundred, which was fair because I was the one who found it. Six hundred left for me.
When Raphael finds José Angelico's wallet, he cannot believe his luck. Eleven hundred pesos is a small fortune for a dumpsite boy who makes two hundred on a good day. But what is significant in this passage is how Raphael immediately shares nearly half of his find with his friend Gardo rather than keep the money to himself. Despite his desperate poverty, Raphael displays a spirit of solidarity that foreshadows how, at the end of the book, the boys will give away to the poor the vast majority of the six million dollars they risk their lives to find.
We were both excited, and we were right to be, because that bag changed everything. A long time later I would think to myself: Everyone needs a key.
With the right key, you can bust the door wide open. Because nobody’s going to open it for you.
Among the items found with Angelico's wallet is a map of the city and a key with a yellow plastic tag. Raphael doesn't make much of it at the time, but later he'll reflect on how that key opened the door to a new reality for him. In this passage, he speaks of the literal key in figurative language, talking about how people with few opportunities in life need something to help them move into a new and better world.
One of the other policemen walked over to me, quite a young man. Gardo was right next to me then, and the policeman put his hand under my chin and tilted my head up. I looked into his eyes, trying so hard not to look scared. He was smiling, but I was glad to feel Gardo right up against me, and I smiled back as best I could.
When the police arrive at Behala to ask if anyone has found a bag containing José's wallet, Raphael's aunt tells them Raphael found something. Raphael senses that his find is very valuable, however, so he pretends that he only found a worthless shoe. In this passage, one of the cops holds Raphael's chin in his hand and smiles. The gesture appears friendly on the surface, but it carries an implied threat of harm. Sensing that Raphael is misleading them, the cop holds the boy's chin to remind him of the power difference between them: a mere dumpsite boy on the one hand, and a man who can wield state-sanctioned violence on the other.
'Central Station,’ he said softly. ‘I lived there nearly a year, when I came in first of all. I can tell you for sure: this is a locker key for the left luggage. Just outside platform four, last block on the right. One-oh-one’s small, up at the top—the cheapest they do. This man’s left something there.'
After worrying over the possibility of a police raid on their homes, Raphael and Gardo bring the items Raphael found to keep them safe with Rat. The decision proves serendipitous when Rat immediately identifies the key with the yellow plastic tag. Having lived at the Central Station, Rat knows it will unlock one of the luggage lockers. With this turn of events, Rat demonstrates how his wily knowledge as a Behala outsider will prove indispensable to Raphael and Gardo.
Unfortunately I am being retired this year—partly because of this story. The school has already appointed its new head, and my final official task is the handover. I hope to stay in the country, but I’m not sure I can.
In Part Two, Father Juilliard joins the narration to explain that he is compiling the different first-person accounts the book comprises. Without giving away the book's ending, he insinuates that what has happened is significant enough that it threatened his position at the Mission School. Knowing that his incidental involvement with the boys will have brought him under police suspicion, he knows that it is probably best for him to leave the country before they prosecute him.
'That’s a lie,' said the policeman, and he came at me from the side. I don’t know where he hit me or what with, but I was knocked to the floor. My chair turned over and the side of my face was split. I fell badly, and my wrist was bent under me, and I saw him standing over me and I thought he was going to start kicking.
During the police interrogation, Raphael sticks with his story that he didn't find the bag the police are looking for. In a shocking display of violence against a defenseless child, the main interrogator suddenly hits Raphael so hard he falls to the floor. To emphasize the suddenness of the attack, Mulligan immerses the reader in Raphael's experience by having him comment on how he only realizes he has been hit when he is already on the floor with a split face.
'I’ll get the forms and check,' Mr Oliva said. 'I want very much to help you, but … I don’t set the fees, they are set by the government.' He smiled. 'I think the government must be very rich!'
When Gardo and Olivia go to visit Gabriel in prison, they are made to wait in a room until a social welfare officer named Mr. Oliva arrives. The man chats amicably with Olivia and Gardo, endearing himself to them with his pleasant demeanor. In this passage, he reveals that it will cost a large sum of money to meet with Gabriel, simultaneously claiming that the corrupt government sets the price. However, Gabriel will soon explain that people are normally only charged one thousand pesos. With this information, Olivia learns in hindsight that Mr. Oliva is just as corrupt as the other officials, and his kindness was merely an act to extract more money out of her.
The old man looked up and stared. Then he nodded. ‘You read about it, huh? You know they found the fridge? I guess they’re asking where he put the cash— that’s what they want. I tell you, boys, I hope he gave it away before they killed him, because I believe that son of a bitch in there’s been stealing for years. Stealing even from me and you—can you believe that?'
Although Rat and Raphael climb a tree to break into Zapanta's estate grounds, the gardener who catches them doesn't chase them out and get angry. In an instance of irony, the aged gardener offers the boys cigarettes and chats with them about José Angelico's theft. In this passage, the gardener conveys his delight over his employer's humiliation, explaining that Zapanta has been stealing from the poor for years. With this statement, the gardener indicates that despite working for the man for decades, class disparity means he feels far more kinship with these poor children he has just met than he does with his employer.
I said goodbye to so few and I can never go back. That is a pity, and it feels so wrong, because in Gardo, Raphael—and maybe most of all Rat—I left part of my heart, and writing this only makes me long to see you again, and this page is wet with my tears, boys. Goodbye, and thank you so much for using me.
Olivia concludes her narration by commenting on how her unwitting involvement in the boys' plan has led her to come under police suspicion. On the advice of a legal authority, Olivia leaves Behala forever to return to England. In this passage, she expresses regret for not having been able to say goodbye to the boys. Even though they fooled her, in an instance of situational irony, she thanks them for using her. The seemingly self-contradictory statement suggests that she is proud she could help the boys in their quest to find José's money and thwart the corrupt authorities, even if it means she can never see them again.
That was some time ago. We have since bought boats, and learned how to fish, and we can tell you the truth, for the lying is finished. We will fish for ever and live happy lives. That is our plan, and nothing will stop us.
The final short chapter of the novel is narrated by all three boys and Pia Dante. Although much of the book leads the reader to suggest that the children have run into trouble, it turns out that their plan to escape to Sampalo has kept them safe from the police. With this unexpected success, the children honor José's and Gabriel's memories by redistributing the stolen money to the poor at Behala and looking after Pia Dante. Rather than keep the money all to themselves, the children hold on to just enough to live modest lives as fishermen far from the corruption in the city.
