"Chickens are fun to meet too. I'll take you to them tomorrow and we can feed them some treats. You just have to take a bath first today because they get scared when you don't smell like home." Or, you know, when someone stank the way poor Gideon unfortunately did. However, Holden didn't want to call the boy smelly, he just wanted to give him some proper motivation to get clean today without forcing him. "When you're done eating, I can show you your room. It's upstairs, next to my room. And from your window you can probably even spot the chickens, unless they are all in bed already."

Gunn finished his pie, grinning. This was going well. Holden really was good at this.