Twenty-Six

Arthur arranges through Tana to meet Jayne and bring Enoch Crane’s journal. Driving to Gogan, he tries to rationalize his weekend as a pot-fueled blur, pushing down memories of rituals and King Sorrow. He arrives at Shut-Up-And-Eat-It before Jayne and waits in the numbing cold.

Jayne pulls in with Ronnie slumped beside her. Both look ill: Jayne is haggard and chapped; Ronnie pallid and hollow-eyed. They argue about a night of smoke and coughing, with Ronnie claiming Jayne passed out with a lit cigarette and “coughed sparks,” which unsettles Arthur.

As Arthur and Jayne hold opposite ends of the journal, he urges her to demand thirty thousand from her buyer, suggesting delay and pressure if she refuses. Jayne, exhausted but mocking, makes a crude jab and then confirms his fear: his mother’s parole is jeopardized by a shiv found in her cell, implying continued leverage over him.

Arthur declares plans to leave for Oxford in July to escape, but Jayne implies they will “decide together,” threatening his mother’s wellbeing to keep him working. She tosses the journal to Ronnie and offers a brief reprieve if her Boston contact pays twenty, then says they resume after February.

Jayne drives off laughing, a ghostly silhouette behind the fogged glass. Arthur stands in the freezing lot and makes a decisive internal break: he will never steal for Jayne Nighswander again.