Same day—Wednesday, April 24, 1935

Moose is frantically looking for Natalie when he hears a voice. He runs towards it and sees Natalie a short distance away, sitting next to a man in denim clothing. With a start, Moose realizes that “Natalie is sitting with a con” (147). The convict starts to hand Moose a baseball, but Moose yells at the man to get away from his sister. The con responds with an easy, arrogant, and overly familiar tone, telling Moose to calm down about the ball and then leaving with a disturbing aside for Natalie: “Bye sweetie” (148). As the strange man walks away Moose “[sees] the number stamped on the back of his denim shirt: 105” (148). 

Same day—Wednesday, April 24, 1935

Moose tortures himself, wondering how long he had left Natalie alone and remembers the Warden saying, “some of these convicts haven’t seen a woman in ten or fifteen years” (149). The scariest thing for Moose is not knowing what happened while he was gone. He has no idea whether Natalie and the man were alone long enough for him to have sexually assaulted her: “I don’t know what happened.