Chapter 3: Brother Rat

Elias Hollis sells the last thing his mother brought west with her — a cedar chest, lock broken off, her good things long since burned — gets two silver dollars, and walks them straight to the drugstore. That's the moment I can't get around: he isn't weighing right against wrong anymore. He's past that and doesn't know it yet.
But what stays with me is the one thing he asks for at the end. Not mercy, not a lighter sentence. A morning to put a rat in the ground properly.
If you'd like to read ahead, early chapters are available on my p*****n: https:///zuochuang