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The Glass Castle Part II, Chapter 12 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • The family moves into a small wooden building in Battle Mountain.
  • Because they have no furniture (umm, what happened to all the furniture in the U-Haul?), they use wooden spools for tables and chairs, and the kids sleep in big cardboard boxes.
  • What are they missing? A piano, of course.
  • Dad buys a piano from a saloon and rigs up some ropes and pulleys to get it inside.
  • But Mom, who can't drive, slams on the accelerator and drags the piano into the house—and right back out of the house again.
  • Mom and Dad leave the piano in the backyard, right where it landed. Mom is happy playing piano outside.