Chapter 5: Clause Nine

By Monday the video had forty thousand views.

Eli found out from a stranger on the stairs of Bell Hall, who looked at him and whispered to a friend.

By the second floor, three more people had done the same.

The caption said: Fairbanks's new dog, house-trained in a week.

The clip was short.

It showed him against a refrigerator with his arms over his head, and a tall figure walking away into the dark.

The comments called Laurence a monster.

They called Eli a lot of other things.

He read none of them twice.

"Hey. Hey, you."

A big, freckled guy in a red beanie leaned out of a coffee cart at the foot of the stairs.

He was waving a paper cup.

"You look like you need this."

Eli stopped.

"What do you want for it?"

The guy blinked.

"It's coffee."

"I know. But what do you want?"

"I want you to drink it," the guy said slowly.

"I'm Abe. I run this cart, and it's the end of a bad batch. Honestly, you'd be helping me."

Eli took the cup.

It was hot and sweet and a little burnt, and nobody asked him for anything.

He could not remember the last time that had happened.

"You're the Fairbanks guy," Abe said, not unkindly.

"Yes."

"Everybody's saying you're his dog."

"I know," Eli said.

"Are you?"

Eli turned the cup in his hands.

"I signed a paper."

"Then un-sign it," Abe said.

"Go to the Foundation office on Main Street. They have a window."

It had not once occurred to Eli that a window existed.

The Fairbanks Foundation took up the first floor of a granite building on Main Street.

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