Chapter 2 Summary

With money in their pockets, Francis and Rudy enjoy the luxury of a trolley ride back downtown. Francis knows the trolleys intimately; before he became a bum, he worked for years on the trolleys at the North Albany carbarns. He'd even killed a man over a trolley during the 1901 trolley strike. Rudy asks questions during the ride; he wants to know where they're going and what Helen's last name is. Francis doesn't like questions about his personal life, and avoids answering. However, as the trolley threads through his old neighborhood, he does volunteer that he used to live down at the bottom of one of these streets. He immediately regrets sharing that detail with Rudy, whom he's only known for two weeks. Rudy has shared some personal information with Francis, divulging that he's dying from stomach cancer. Francis wants only the bonds of...