Katie is a 27-year-old waitress working in a diner called Ivan’s. She is new to Southport, North Carolina, having only arrived a little over a month ago with very little money and no means of transportation. Katie has short, chestnut-colored hair that she dyes in the kitchen sink of her small cottage. The hair dye is very important to her; she buys it with her meager tips but can barely afford the necessities.

The cottage where Katie lives is one of two that were once hunting cabins on an old plantation. The cottages have been long neglected, but the landlord gives Katie the materials to fix hers up. She works hard, both on the cottage and at the diner, saving half her earnings. She is eager to have enough money to escape Southport at a moment’s notice if it becomes necessary. She worries her past, the one in which she was a “former long-haired blond” (6), might catch up with her and she will need to run again.

Katie is surprised when a woman, about 30-years-old with long, unruly brown hair, suddenly appears on the porch of the neighboring cottage. The woman introduces herself: “My friends call me Jo” (7). They talk for a few minutes; although Katie is not interested in making friends, she finds Jo easy to talk to.