Two Wolves

Ben’s mother comes outside to bring Ben back in for some food, and Ben hides the phone in the car so he isn’t caught snooping. Ben is anxious and refuses to eat. The headline that Ben read on the phone said, “Bank Error in Your Favor,” following up that a bank mistakenly deposited $7.2 million into Ben’s father’s account (130). Ben impulsively says the words “7.2 million,” and his father pins him against the wall in anger. Ben begins to cry, and his father mocks him and storms off into the night.

Ben’s mother comforts him and tells him that they don’t know what to do. Ben tells his mother to not listen to his father, but she tells him that she doesn’t know how. Ben considers his situation and decides that he needs to run away. He tries to sneak away through the trapdoor he cut in the floor earlier, but his mother wakes up as he does so.

Ben waits for his mother to wake his father up and reveal Ben’s escape attempt, but instead, she goes back to sleep. Ben manages to escape from the cabin and decides to head down the slope to the creek so he can escape in the raft.