Summary

Chapter 1 opens with Lewis Barnavelt on a bus. He is 10 years old and his parents have recently died in an accident. It is 1948 and he is on his way from his previous home in a Milwaukee suburb to his uncle's house in New Zebedee, Capharnaum County, Michigan. Lewis is silently praying because he is afraid of the situation he faces. He has never met his uncle, Jonathan van Olden Barnavelt, and only knows that his aunts, who were Baptists, had warned Lewis about Jonathan tendency to drink and play poker. Jonathan introduces himself and helps Lewis with his large, heavy suitcase. When they are off the bus and walking away, a clock begins to toll the hour. Jonathan immediately stops, and Lewis sees that his eyes are glazed. When the chiming stops, Jonathan shakes himself and says that he always “phases out like...