Of course, Mean Joe couldn’t be there all the time but when he was, watch out. The mother didn’t dare smack him. People look at Mean Joe today. His voice, his size, it scares them. But Mean Joe wouldn’t hurt anyone unless they tried to stomp on one of us. Besides, the Peacemaker is always with him when he’s out, more to calm whoever he’s talking to than to protect them from his wrath. Mean Joe isn’t a wrathful person.” The Peacemaker, Stanley thought, someone who made peace in Mean Joe’s wake, another of what seemed to be checks and balances in a complicated, internal process?
