In this chapter, Eliot tells the story of his band, which he describes as being "better than 6000" . He tells Eliot's son, Elliot, that no one told him he could "reach for the sky" , and that he would never be able to play against the other bands. Eliot tells Elliot that his father would have given the guitar to Elliot if he had wanted him to play it, but Elliot would have kept it in his closet instead. Elliot tells Eliot that he is not going to like this, and Eliot tells him to shut up. Elliot says that he never said he couldn't play the guitar, and Elliot tells him that if he wanted to, he would give it to him instead of sticking the guitar in the closet. Eliot says that Elliot and Elliot want to tell him how the hell they have that in their hands, and he tells them to stop talking about it, and to get back to school. Eliot then tells Elliot to look at him when he's talking to him, and not to look in the eye when he talks to him. Eliot goes on to tell Elliot that nothin " on the ground" can help him when life doesn't go his way. He says that when he was younger, he used to write to deal with his feelings. As he got older, his feelings became songs, and his father let him play his guitar again and again, so he started putting some songs to the lyrics he'd written. He eventually sold the guitar and found the one that would last him for the rest of his life. He also tells Eliot about the chance he had to win money at a pawnshop, and how he saw the president of the United States sign a gun control bill