- Jason goes to Shin's house. No one answers his knocks or the bell, so he goes in.
- Shin is vegging on his bed. He's mad that Jason made Henry High Priest. "'He's not even serious… It's just a joke to him'" (16.17). When Jason says, "it is kind of a joke," Shin replies that Jason better hope the Ten-legged One doesn't hear him say that. And once again Jason isn't sure if Shin is kidding.
- Shin's gastropodarium has been neglected—the pond has dried up and none of the snails are moving. Jason thinks they are dead, but Shin says they are estivating—"it's what pods do when things get bad. They pull into their shells… And wait. They can survive for months waiting for rain" (16.29).
- Jason encourages Shin to climb with them that night. Shin says there is no way he can climb the tower leg, but Jason says he's going to build a "stairway to heaven" (16.40).
- Back at home Jason is sweating buckets in his sweltering garage. His mom worries that he's not well. He tells her he is working on a project—a "religious thing"—and lets her keep her assumption that it is for TPO.
- Later on Jason's dad comes into his room because his mom told him he was working on a project for church. He offers to help, which Jason declines.
- His dad fishes for deets on how TPO is going—Jason gets the feeling that Just Al has been telling his dad stuff. He protests that what happens at TPO stays at TPO, that "'what we say in those meetings is private, just like what you say in the confessional'" (16.86).
- His dad begins to backpedal, says that Just Al hasn't named any names, but that one kid invented his own Ten-legged god of some sort. And that when he asked Al how Jason was doing, Al suggested he ask Jason—but Jason just insists Al shouldn't be saying anything to parents. Good talk, guys.