- Will sees his parents framed in the doorway. His father is reading a book and his mother sits by the fire knitting and humming "like a teakettle" (8.3).
- Will watches his parents and wonders that his mother looks so happy and his father so sad.
- He starts when he sees his father is holding a paper the same color as the handbill that he and Jim chased through the trees.
- Will steps inside. His mother smiles warmly and his father looks "stricken" and "dismayed" (8.16).
- His father hides the handbill. His mother leafs through his library books.
- As Will walks upstairs, he sees his father toss the handbill into the fireplace.
- We learn that sometimes Will stays up to listen to his parents' voices, soothed by the sound of truth in his father's voice.
- He hears his father lament his old age, and he hears his mother sooth him in response. The two adults also talk about the carnival. Will gets scared. He huddles under his covers and takes out a flashlight to read his books. The first image he sees is a dinosaur, and he realizes he got Jim's book by accident.
- He hears the front door shut and realizes his father is heading back to the library while his mother sleeps for the night.