Chapters 5-8 Summary

Newton Hoenikker, a Delta Upsilon pledge, replies to John's letter. Newt explains that he was very young on the day the bomb was dropped. He has two older siblings. His brother Frank disappeared two years ago, immediately after their father's funeral, and may well be dead. His older sister Angela is a housewife in Indiana.

Newton recounts his memories of being a six-year-old boy, playing with trucks on the carpet outside his father's study on the day the bomb was dropped. Inside, his father, a self-absorbed, anti-social man, played cat's cradle with a bit of string. His mother died when Newton was born and Angela, sixteen years older, raised him. She often complained that she had three children - Frank, Newton and their father.

After Newton's father frightened him, Newton went outside. There, his older brother Frank was staging bug fights...