A mother laments that her "nursery-school kid with a melodious voice" is growing up. She notes a change in his behavior: he no longer says goodbye to her, then slams the door when he gets home and talks rudely to his father. During a lunchtime conversation, James begins telling his parents stories about a badly behaved boy in his class named Jack, who frequently misbehaves. Although somewhat fascinated by the strange boy, Braganza wonders whether
James's bad influence is to blame for Jack's misbehavior. Over the ensuing weeks, James goes from bad to worse until one day at the beginning of the week Jack tells his parents that James behaved himself and the teacher monitored him. By the end of the week, however, Jack claims that James is back to his old self when he tells a girl in his class a bad word to the teacher. The next school day, James hums the word to himself several times and throws the chalk. When the next PTA meeting begins, Jack's mother decides to visit James' mother. She closely examines the other parents and sees nothing but pleasant faces and is surprised when James is not mentioned. After the meeting, she goes to the teacher and introduces herself as Jack's mother. The teacher says that Jack "had a little trouble adjusting ... but now he's a nice little monitor. With the occasional omission, of course." Jack's mother then mentions James and the teacher tells him that there is no one named James in the class.
