The narrator tells the young man that his father's liquor store is about to close. The young man tells the narrator that the man who broke him up with his father did it in "a particularly hurtful way" and that the narrator is a "poor judge of character" for not knowing about the man's past. The narrator asks if it's better if they don't visit the next day, but the boy says that he's worried about his father. He asks the narrator if he can untangle the situation for him, and the narrator tells him that it looks like the store is closing down. He tells the boy that he feels that way, but still, why? He doesn't want to "stop playing with that" , and asks if the narrator would stop being kind to him if he were in the same situation. The boy says he has met "plenty of kind people" in his life, but when he fell on hard times, he was deceived by the same kindness. He wonders if the man was afraid of getting too close to people, and wonders if he was afraid that he would make a connec as well. He thanks the store for taking care of the children, and says he'll be in the courtroom tomorrow.