The Day a Fragile 10-Year-Old Named Eli Somehow Drove Himself Across Town With a Scarred Pitbull and a Crumpled Twenty-Dollar Bill to Ask a Group of American Bikers for One Final, Unusual Favor That Would Later Unfold Into Something No One Present Was Emotionally Ready to Witness

PART 1

Dying Boy and Biker Crew — it sounds like the beginning of a rumor, something exaggerated, something people wouldn’t believe unless they had stood there themselves and felt the air shift in a way that didn’t make sense at first, the kind of moment where time seems to hesitate as if even it isn’t sure how to move forward.