“The handbook for fugitives has just three simple rules”

“The handbook for fugitives has just three simple rules” is a compact code of conduct recalled by Jenny and attributed to Frazer. Its prohibitions—do not drive, do not get drunk, and do not sleep with someone who does not know a fugitive’s identity—join practical caution to the danger that intimacy might expose a hidden self. In the scene, Jenny and Pauline recite the rules with growing amusement, even as a stranger’s question soon brings the problem of identity back into view.

The Rules in the Scene

At a bar, after the bartender has left them alone again, Jenny remarks on the setting and Pauline tells her to be quiet. The two edge their stools closer together. Jenny says she is glad Pauline is not driving and asks whether she has told her what Frazer would say. She then recalls the first rule: “The handbook for fugitives has just three simple rules. Don’t drive.” The code is presented not as a formal document but as remembered advice, passed between companions in conversation.

The next two rules extend the same caution into the night out. Jenny states, “Don’t get drunk.” Pauline replies that they barely do that. Jenny adds, “And don’t sleep with people who don’t know who you are. In case you tell them, in a moment of passion.” The sequence moves from the practical risk of driving to the loss of restraint associated with drinking, then to the possibility that intimacy could prompt an unwitting disclosure. Together, the rules treat remaining hidden as a matter of both physical conduct and control over what a person reveals.

Intimacy, Secrecy, and Humor

Pauline responds to the final rule by widening her eyes and covertly examining the room. She concludes, “At least we won’t break number three,” and the two women burst into giggles. Her glance makes the rule momentarily active: the bar contains other people, and the code asks them to consider who might learn their identities. But the shared joke also allows them to acknowledge that risk without turning the exchange into a solemn warning.

The comic tone depends on the contrast between the seriousness of fugitive precautions and the women’s relaxed teasing. Pauline’s answer narrows the rule to the danger of sleeping with someone who does not know who they are, while Jenny’s recitation keeps the possibility of a passionate confession in view. Their laughter makes the rules sound almost like familiar social advice, though the need to protect their identities remains the reason the advice matters.

The Code’s Limits in the Moment

After their third drink, the narration says that their probationary term seems to end. The bartender offers another drink, and a man who has come over from the pool table stands beside them. He leans on his cue and asks Jenny, “So what are you?” The abrupt question follows the joking recital with a pointed return to the issue at its center: how a fugitive is to respond when a stranger presses for an identity.

The scene does not yet say how Jenny answers. Instead, the code’s final warning hangs over the encounter: the danger is not only that someone may ask, but that a person might reveal too much in an unguarded moment. The exchange gives the handbook its double character—an operational discipline for staying concealed and a joke through which Jenny and Pauline briefly make that discipline feel manageable.