God bless us, the ones who are here and the ones who aren’t. We’ve all been through so much.
-- Nora Durst (Part 1 paragraph Page 30)

Importance: Nora is giving a keynote address at a ceremony honoring those who the town lost on October 14th three years before. The people just disappeared. No one knows where they went. She is asking for blessings for those present and those who are missing. She still hopes that her husband and two sons will reappear some day. She’s not asking for a great day at the beach. She’d be happy to have them back under any circumstances – even like the weekend they all suffered from the flu together.

There was an almost unbearable tension in the air, a mood of anxious waiting, though no one seemed to know whether they were waiting for a logical explanation or a second wave of disappearances.
-- Narrator (Part 1 paragraph Page 56)

Importance: This passage captures the confusion...