Sold on a Monday

With little chance of finding a door unlocked, Lily and Ellis crawl through a window. Lily enters the corridor to the office, which is locked. So, Ellis jimmies the lock. Lily finds Calvin’s file in Lowell’s desk drawer and takes the two pages below the file’s top page.

As they are leaving the office, they run into Mildred. Lily implores her not to scream. Lily thinks that Mildred must have known that Calvin wanted to go home and that Mildred must care about children and want them back with their own families. When they hear a man cough, they look to Mildred but, “A debate whirled in Mildred’s eyes” (284). Still, Mildred tells them to go.

Once back at the car, Lily tells Ellis that Calvin is in Sussex County, in a town called Briarsburg. Since Lowell could discover the missing pages, they decide to make the two-hour drive, although it is late at night.

They get lost twice on the way but finally reach the home of Bob and Ada Gantry. As they park near the barn, Ellis tells Lily that he wants to do the talking, to make right what he had done wrong. He thinks that once the Gantrys hear the story they will agree to turn Calvin over.