Part 4, Chapter 26 Summary

Flash back to Miles' final year in St. Luke's College. He is on Martha's Vineyard with his friends Peter and Dawn, enjoying a Columbus Day weekend getaway. Zack hadn't heard her voice since he'd left Empire Falls but suddenly there it was, "My dear boy." Mrs. Whiting had tracked him down to let him know his mother was dying of cancer. Since starting college, Miles had avoided Empire Falls like a plague city. Miles spent his summers working a seafood restaurant in Rhode Island which was owned by Peter's parents. Secretly Miles resents the fact that his mother spends more time with the Whiting family than with her own and has grown so fond of Cindy that she tends to neglect David. As a result, David is growing up as an angry young man experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and getting...