Part 1, The Call: Chapters 2-3, Which Treats of the Strange Message the Hero's Father Sent Him; Of a Misunderstanding between Our Hero and His Neighbors Summary

While Raleigh drives home in his Ford Fiesta, probably a 1970s vintage since the story seems to be set in the late 70s or early 80s, a high school boy flips him off for dawdling too much. Raleigh goes by his father's house, which is now up for sale. He calls Aura from a pay phone in the hospital where his father had been kept to monitor his heart disease and learns that Earley had left a message on a cassette tape for him. Raleigh then sees his favorite aunt, Victoria Hayes (seventy-two years old...