Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary

Flash back to Miles' childhood. Miles is nine years old and his mother has quickly gathered him up and trundled him off for a week's vacation on Martha's Vineyard. Miles' father is gone, which is not unusual, as he is often shooting off to one place or another-sometimes Florida-to carouse and paint houses. Max is a terrible house painter and particularly likes Florida during the season because, even though he paints peoples' windows shut, they are afraid to fire him because the next painter they hire might be even worse. Max even argued that he was doing Grace and Miles a big favor by going off on the prowl for these extended periods because, although he was not sending any house-painting money home, there was one less mouth for Grace to feed with her salary from the Empire Shirt Factory. Miles...