They Cage the Animals at Night

Jennings is separated from Gene at the police station, and Gene is dragged away crying. Jennings is brought to a new children’s home late at night. He is awoken by a bully punching him in the stomach and the face. Jennings fights him until a woman breaks it up. In the bathroom, the bully asks who the toughest child is, and Jennings responds that he does not know because he has not met everyone. The bully says it is himself and introduces himself as Ronny. He shakes Jennings’ hand, to Jennings’ surprise.

The playroom looks identical to the playroom in every other home, with a door leading out to a courtyard fenced in with barbed wire. Ronny invites Jennings outside. The other children avoid them, and Jennings feels what it is like to be a bully, though he does not want to be. Ronny, who ran away from a home in Texas and spent time in jail, tells Jennings the rules of the place.

Jennings finds his number on his bed, number 47. He finds a younger boy named Kevin crying in his bed. It is his first home. Jennings consoles him and tells him the same advice that Mark had given him at the Home of the Angels: just wait, eat, sleep, and remember your number.