Trip to Hays City

 The convicted killer in the Dodge City federal courthouse was never identified as Rock. Still, Rock himself knew the matter of his guilt would be established by daybreak. He would hang for sure. A one-way trip to Hays City (long the Kansas equivalent of Huntsville, Texas) was inevitable, and he knew that, too.

Another Aikman reunion

 The Aikman children and two of their three surviving parents were celebrating one of many reunions. Though it did not seem at all odd to Rock at the time, they had chosen his maternal grandparent's house in Nashville, Arkansas, as the site. Three Aikman children, all at least fifty-six years old or older, were maternal first cousins of Rock's, which he later supposed justified their selection. It wasn't until he awoke the following day that he remembered the same place, known as the Crutchfield house to many of the city's residents, had been gutted by fire the proceeding November.