Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary

The chapter begins with Jamie, now a thirty-five-year-old man, coming back to Ayrshire, Scotland on a train to see his dying Granda Hugh. It is a blustery night in October, and this is his first visit back in ten years since moving to England to attend university. During the train ride into Ayrshire, Jamie replays the past in his mind while observing the changing countryside of his youth. He pictures his childhood home, hiding in the dark, with nicotine ceilings and memories inside. He thinks of the train tracks into Ayrshire that have carried him in and out of moments in his life. As the train lulls from side to side, Jamie finds himself once again contemplating pressure and time.

Stepping off the train, he is solicited for change by a group of teenage trick-or-treaters who notice his English accent and...