At 12:30 at night, Laura Eastman is having trouble sleeping. She has recently moved back home to Lewiston, New York, after staying in Virginia with her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Jim for four years. The place she called home for 11 years no longer feels like where she belongs. To her, “The autumn smells of dry leaves and fallen apples, the brisk, cool air of western New York State, and most of all, the hard twang of northern voices, [are] almost foreign to her” (1). Her father, recently remarried, and her brother, Bert, seem like different people from the ones she left behind.

She suddenly sits up in bed after hearing a tapping sound from downstairs. She first dismisses it as a branch tapping a window but then hears shuffling sounds from Bert’s room, followed by hushed voices. Laura wonders who would visit at this hour; she and Bert are home alone since their father and stepmother went to the market in Buffalo for the weekend. Cautiously, she walks to her door and opens it to hear more clearly.

One of the voices is deep but has a “familiar ring” (3) to it. The other person sounds younger, has a distinct Southern drawl, and is referred to as “Martin.