As Bone and Rose wait for the bus to arrive, a couple arrives to see the man’s mother off. They strike up a conversation when they hear Bone tell Rose to sit by the woman, and after the bus leaves, they pick him up hitchhiking. When they mention that they’re from Keene, Bone asks if they know the Ridgeways (the family whose house he squatted in during Chapter 7); they knowingly say yes. He continues, asking if they know Russ. When the man asks Bone his name, he realizes that he’s might be telling too much. This is confirmed when he exits the vehicle and sees the Connecticut plates; the couple is almost certainly the Ridgeways themselves, and Bone reflects that everything he had on him belonged to them.

Bone continues to his house and finds that it’s a mess when he arrives. As he looks for his cat, Bone’s stepfather Ken comes out of the bedroom in his underwear and tells him the cat died. Ken says that he’s lost his job, Bone’s mother has moved in with his grandmother, and that she’s attending Al Anon and refusing to return until Ken cleans up his act.

When Ken sees

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