When Finn meant he couldn't read it wasn't an understatement. Aside from recognizing perhaps his name along with the labeling of his favorite creature comforts it was all hieroglyphs to him. He hadn't held a graphite pencil for a practical use in years and thinking of a time when he sat down to get a proper lesson on anything was a foggy, distant memory. Finn wondered then if his sisters had gotten the education they deserved. Whether Nora had ever gotten the training to be a teacher one day herself or if Lizzie was still chasing the dream of ever becoming a nurse. Then, after what could have only been weeks, he thought deeply about his mother. Whether she had heard of his capture, if his name even struck a cord in her anymore. If she wondered what he was doing now and if she was surprised if Finn was sitting across from a priest, hand on a bible after a backwards confession. If they could see him now, what would they think? Would they be disappointed that his body wasn't being taken down from a rope? 

"You? Teachin' me how to read 'n write?" One light brow cocked, his thin lips curling up as if Eli had invited him straight up to the moon. Finn had heard a lot of funny things in his life but never the idea of writing lessons at thirty years of age. Less than a month ago he'd shot a man through his chest for blocking his escape and robbed a boy nearly half his age with a pistol pressed against the back of his head. It may as well have been a jump to the moon in his mind. But Eli had time for all of that, if he could stomach listening to every shred of his life that Finn managed to tear up with his terrible behavior. 

He then slid the Holy Book up close, flipped it open halfway and studied the text but absorbed nothing out of it. The print was so unbelievably small, the paper so thin he felt as though it would rip at his touch, as if something like that couldn't be touched by someone like him. Surprisingly enough it didn't, and Finn found himself flipping through it again. Only this time he explored with more curiosity. "And you can read all of this?"