Arnie Reid Arnie Reid is a young boy at the age of thirteen. He meets an old farmer named Merle Winter, he is eighty-three. They both must depend on each other. This story is placed in northern Minnesota in the middle of winter. Arnie’s mother left him with his father. From the last several years his father and Arnie have been moving to different towns because of his drunk father. Arnie’s dad doesn’t have a job and he keeps getting in trouble with the police. Arnie and his father live in a small trailer far outside of town. The only thing Arnie has to keep him busy and out of trouble is his art, until he meets the old retired farmer, Merle Winter. Merle and Arnie have been having a lack of fun in their lives. They become great friends, and learn how to enjoy their lives with each other. Just when you think the story is going great someone breaks into Merle’s home. Instantly, Merle’s and Arnie’s life just goes back to how it was before they met each other. Arnie gets caught in the middle of a police investigation that is big …show more content…
His father was never really able to help him since he was usually drunk. Arnie’s mom left him and that just made everything worse. Getting closer to the end of the story something happened in Arnie’s life. Merles house got broken into and Merle got hurt in the process, Arnie became very sad and somewhat angry. Arnie did everything in his will to help Merle Winter and get away from the men that hurt him. The boy had to do this with his only friend Julia. They helped Merle as much as they physically could. At the end of this story it says that Arnie ran and grabbed his father and hugged him. This shows that Arnie had become happy again and could rely and love his dad. Throughout the story Arnie started out as a depressed little kid stuck in his bubble, but then grew happy and popped his bubble and got explore his life happily with a good friend, Merle