When the palm chapter 2

### Fleeing to Denver

After Bucktooth leaves, Jack can’t recover for a long time. The group of onlookers, who were like wooden chickens, only come to their senses after Bucktooth is out of sight and start to talk animatedly.

A former intellectual named Robert approaches Jack and says, “Mr. Thompson, I’m afraid your bad luck has arrived. Didn’t you recognize that man just now?”

Jack looks blankly at Robert. Robert pauses for a moment and says, “This Bucktooth is none other than the once – notorious bandit leader, Sam Black, from a few years ago.”

Jack shakes his head and says, “Sam Black was caught and executed by the authorities three years ago. Besides, I’ve seen Sam Black’s wanted poster. He didn’t have protruding teeth at all.” Robert smiles and says, “The one who died was a scapegoat that the authorities found when they were pressured by their superiors. The real Sam Black is still at large. Those protruding teeth were Sam’s disguise to avoid being recognized.”

The onlookers suddenly understand. Afraid that Sam might come back, they all hurry away.

Jack then realizes that even bigger trouble is yet to come. It’s clearly written on the pawn ticket that Sam will come to redeem the hand in three months. It’s the dog – days now. In three months, the hand will probably be nothing but bones. How can he return it? If he can’t return the hand, Sam won’t let it go until he ruins Jack’s life. This Sam is really ruthless!

Jack gets more and more scared as he thinks about it. The following days are like years. As the three – month pawn period is approaching, Jack grits his teeth and decides to leave this place full of troubles. He returns all the unredeemed pawned items to their owners without asking for the principal. One dark night, he hurriedly leaves New York with his family.

After a long and arduous journey, Jack finally arrives in Denver with his wife and daughter a month later. On the way, his wife repeatedly asks him to throw away the porcelain jar with Sam’s hand. But Jack, being careful, thinks that if he ever meets the cruel Sam again, the hand might come in handy, so he refuses to throw it away. When he arrives in Denver, he doesn’t have the capital to open a pawnshop. So he finds a job as an accountant in a pharmacy.

Twenty years later, with the little money he has saved through hard work, Jack finally buys a shop on the main street of Denver and hangs up the “Reliance Pawnshop” sign that he brought from New York.

By now, Jack is over sixty years old, with gray hair at his temples.