70 pages • 2 hours read
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Tiffy comes home to a letter from Richie that tells the whole story of how he ended up in prison. He and some friends were out drinking at a bar, and there were some people there who apparently belonged to a gang, which Richie didn’t realize until he told his story to the other men in prison and they recognized his descriptions. Richie caught the eye of one of the women who was with the group, and later, in the bathroom, her boyfriend threatened Richie if he looked at her again. Richie was drunk and ended up flirting with the girl and kissing her later in the night.
When he was walking home, Richie stopped at a convenience store, bought cigarettes and beer, and went home. One of the gang members came in right after Richie left and robbed the store at knifepoint. Richie insists that there was no way he could have gone in, made his purchase, left, and come back two minutes later with a hoodie over his head and balaclava on. He also notes that he was drunk and would not have been able to walk properly or pull a knife from his pocket the way the actual culprit did.