Back in 1969, Hope has a nightmare about the night he lost his hands. After the big game, he and Bo Hash travel for two days until they get to the Corner Saloon. When they arrive, Tom Bobbitt, one of the men they gambled with, arranges a cabin for them and a celebratory dinner. Since Hope threw the game and the Miko Kings lost, Bobbitt will “be taking over the Miko Kings and the Indian league, but only as a front man for a syndicate up north in Chicago” (213). He crudely boasts that Henri Day and Lonnie Johns never could have been successful with the team, anyway. Hope winces and asks for a jug of whiskey to numb the guilt he feels.

Hope finishes off the whiskey and wakes up drunk the next morning. He looks up to see “Blip Bleen standing over him with an ax in his hand” (214), alongside two other players for the Miko Kings. Blip drags Hope out of bed, and the three men stretch him out on the floor. When Bo wakes up and tries to charge them with a knife, they shoot him with a 12 gage.