Summary

In Chapter 98 the author introduced the characters who either lived in or near Harlan's building. There was a war veteran in a wheelchair who rolled himself around the Crown Heights neighborhood. He wore army fatigues, polished brown shoes and a helmet with dents in it. He was known for singing operas as he rolled around the city. No one knew where the man lived, but he did not stay any one place, and left almost as soon as he arrived. On Harlan's first day at 245 Sullivan Place, the old vet rolled his chair in front of Harlan's apartment door and sang Handel's "Messiah" with his beautiful voice.

The author described one of the residents as a man who kept to himself in his apartment with his cat. He spent the days looking out the window watching. Just before he left the window for...