Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary

Father Mark interrupts Miles as he is contemplating the steeple of St. Catherine's Catholic Church. Miles has agreed to paint the church to save money for the parish. Remembering how he loved to climb as a boy, miles is now terrified of heights. Father Mark invites him to cookies and coffee in "The Rectum," their private name for the rectory, which grew out of Miles' boyhood confusion of the two words. Miles recalls that he had seriously considered becoming a priest in high school and still sometimes wonders if he should have done that rather than wed himself to the Empire Grill. Miles and Father Mark discuss Miles' recent vacation at Martha's Vineyard with Tick and his all-but-final divorce from his wife, Janine. Miles tells the priest that while at the Vineyard, Tick went to mass with him most mornings which...