Now 59, Morris Bellamy struggles to deal with the changes after his release from prison, including new technology and higher prices. After his parole officer, Ellis McFarland, makes a surprise visit to his apartment, Morris decides to retrieve the notebooks while the chances of another surprise visit are low. He returns to his hiding place on Sycamore Street, where he confirms the trunk is still there but reburies it without opening it, afraid of being caught. He leaves, relieved that it has not been moved. Over the next month, Morris extremely careful not to do anything to risk returning to prison. He works as a filing clerk at a culture center called the MAC and lives in a low-income apartment complex that he calls Bugshit Manor. He also frequently visits Andy’s bookstore, watching from across the street but never speaking with him. He blames Andy for his imprisonment because Andy refused to help with the notebooks and for building his paranoia about the police, caused him to get black-out drunk the night of his arrest. However, he resists the urge to do anything to Andy, convincing himself that all that matters is retrieving the notebooks.