Chapter 7, Apprentices Summary

The woman next to Brent boarded in Phoenix and hasn't stopped talking yet. The bus is passing through the desert. The desert appears stage-lit by the moon, the cactus looking like groups of wise men. Brent falls asleep with his head against the window. He gets off to look around in El Paso, where a missing-child flier reminds him of Lea, permanently missing. Outside the light is blinding, and the heat is oppressive. He likes being in Texas, where nobody knows him. A sidewalk preacher turns as Brent passes and shouts out to him, ."..A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." His eyes meet Brent's, who is suddenly glad his bus leaves soon. Brent reads Two Years Before the Mast, the book Emil left behind for him, all the way across Louisiana. The author set out on...