Summary

In Chapter 23, the narrator and the old man visit a small, makeshift cabin where the narrator’s mother used to sculpt sometimes. The cabin is fairly distant from the town, and they must much of the way on foot. The neglected cabin has become very dilapidated. They fill their backpacks and a suitcase with sculptures that they find there. They go back to the train station and find to their horror that the Memory Police are there and are looking inside people’s bags. The old man explains that, according to rumor, some people have been taking refuge in the wilderness away from the town. Fortunately, there is a distraction when an anemic girl faints and people tend to her. After that, the Memory Police wave everyone through without checking bags.

In Chapter 24, over the following weeks, the narrator and the old man break...