The Talisman

Inside, they meet the Reverend Sunlight Gardener, who shows them the boys working in the fields. Jack feels as if he has seen him before. Gardener asks if Jack has been a bad boy and Wolf whines, saying his head hurts. With horror, Jack realizes that Gardener is Osmond’s Twinner. Gardener asks if they have met before, and Jack denies it. Gardener tells a giant boy named Heck Bast to show them around.

A boy named Sonny Singer tells them they’ll be there for 30 days unless they decide to stay longer. He claims that 60 of the boys are in the home voluntarily. When forced to empty their pockets, Jack relinquishes the guitar pick and silver dollar. Wolf has nothing but two stones in his pocket. Singer slaps Jack, takes them to their dorm, and locks them in.

Wolf is miserable. He says that the Sunlight Home is one of “His” (356) places, referring to Gardener’s Twinner, Osmond. Wolf knows that Gardener is a killer and Wolf can’t bear to be anywhere near him. He says that Osmond is a terror to the entire Wolf family in the Territories. The two of them dress in their uniforms and go to sleep.

A bell rings, and Bast shouts for everyone to come to confession. Wolf wakes, screaming. Jack begs him to stop, saying that unless Wolf complies Singer will hurt Jack more. In the hall, Bast, Singer, Warwick, and Casey torment a half-naked boy named Morton about masturbating. They say that if he can abstain for a week, he can have his underwear back. In the confession hall, Jack notices a camera set into the wall. Gardener is watching.

Jack is disturbed by the eagerness of the boys at confession. They admit their sins, weep, and beg for absolution. Bast leads a prayer before Gardener asks for 12 more confessions. As the boys confess, Jack realizes that this is the only way they get Gardener’s approval, which they desperately crave. After confession, Gardener asks Jack again where they met. He promises that he’ll remember. On the way out, Bast pushes Jack, who calmly tells them that they better watch out for him. That evening, they go to night chapel, where Gardener preaches a sermon. He talks about how the state has tried to shut him down twice, and how his righteousness has saved the Sunlight Home, and will do so again. He leads them in prayer.

Jack believes that the Territories are their only way to escape, but he doesn’t want to flip from the Sunlight Home, worried that it might take them somewhere worse. Days later, they work in Far Field at the property’s edge. Jack remembers a boy named Ferd Janklow, who tried to escape a few days before. He became Jack’s friend. He ran for the stone wall at work as the other boys chased him. Confession was canceled that night.

After days without seeing Ferd, Jack believes they killed him. He learns that Ferd’s parents put him in the Sunlight Home to correct his behavior. Shortly afterwards, Ferd wrote a letter to his parents, telling them about the abuse at the home, but when his parents alerted the authorities, Gardener was ready, and the place was clean when the inspectors came. They sent Ferd into a metal cube outside, called the Box.

Bast catches Jack and tries to strangle him. When Wolf intervenes, Bast tries to punch him. Wolf catches his fist and crushes it. The others manage to restrain Wolf and Gardener injects him with a sedative. They put Wolf in the Box, where he screams the entire time. Gardener says that if Jack will tell Gardener where they’ve met before, he’ll let Wolf out. Jack does not tell him what he wants to know. Soon, Jack thinks Wolf is dying in the Box as his screams go quieter. When they finally let him out, Wolf says he started to change in the Box. Jack notices the new hair on Wolf’s legs.

Gardener tells the group that Ferd repented and called his parents to tell them. As Jack works on toilet duty, Bast approaches and says they’re going to pay for hurting him. Wolf wastes away as he wishes for his home. That night, Sonny and Bast take Jack to Gardener. They beat him as Gardener questions him. Gardener holds a lit zippo to Jack’s face, almost burning him. Jack says they may have met in California, and Gardener sends him back to his room, promising that they will talk again soon.

Rudolph the cook tells Jack that he needs to escape, but he’s too scared to help. He says that once Gardener disappeared from his room when Rudolph knew he was in there. Rudolph doesn’t know about the Territories, but he knows something abnormal is happening. At four in the morning, the boys drag Jack before Gardener for another interrogation. Jack says that he is from all the planets when Gardener asks where they met. Gardener says that the next time he will hurt Wolf instead of Jack, but Jack thinks they’ll be back in the Territories by then.