Lee leaves and comes back

Lee moves the family into Dessie's little house in Salinas, invents jobs to delay the moment, and then gives notice — his prepared speech spoiled because Adam has already guessed. At breakfast the twins take the news with complete indifference, being more interested in a ten-cent basketball game and a man on Main Street who sells sausages in buns with all the mustard you want; Lee, pleased rather than hurt, leaves fifty cents on the table for them. He refuses to be walked to the depot and refuses to promise letters, since there is nothing sadder than an association held together by the glue of postage stamps. That night Adam forgets to make supper. Six days later Lee lets himself in with his own key, finds Adam scraping a burnt frying pan and a saucepan of beets stinking in the yard, takes the ashes out of the stove, and makes coffee in a skillet. He has not lost his money. He does not want a bookstore, and thinks he knew it before the train pulled out.

Short and dry, turning on the children's indifference, which Lee insists on preferring to counterfeit grief. The dream he has been saving for since his first conversation with Samuel is dropped in one line — "good riddance" — and the pidgin comes back for a sentence, aimed at himself. The burnt pan and the beets in the yard argue for staying better than either man does.