Chapter 5: The Half Book

The moment I keep returning to isn't the eleven days behind that locked door. It's the yard afterward. Elias has the half book under his coat, wire and oilcloth like a sack of nails, and he hands it off fast — up on the shed with you, flat under the tin, don't tell your mother, don't tell your father either. Then he says: get the rules in your head and go do something else with your life. He means both halves of that, I think, and I've never been able to settle which one cost him more.
If you'd like to read ahead, early chapters are available on my p*****n: https:///zuochuang