Study Guide

The Glass Castle Part II, Chapter 12

By Jeannette Walls

Part II, Chapter 12

The family moves into a small wooden building in Battle Mountain.
Because they have no furniture (umm, what happened to all the furniture in the U-Haul?), they use wooden spools for tables and chairs, and the kids sleep in big cardboard boxes.
What are they missing? A piano, of course.
Dad buys a piano from a saloon and rigs up some ropes and pulleys to get it inside.
But Mom, who can't drive, slams on the accelerator and drags the piano into the house—and right back out of the house again.
Mom and Dad leave the piano in the backyard, right where it landed. Mom is happy playing piano outside.