The new, smaller house

Charlie and his father live in a small, oddly-built house that they used to share with his mom and little sister. They have lived in the new house for less than a year, and Charlie fondly remembers his old home, thinking, "We'd moved out of the "big house," the family house, shortly after Christmas, and I missed it very much" (16-17). The smaller house coincides with the fragmentation of Charlie's family and their bizarre living arrangement. His mother moved into her new boyfriend's house and took Billie with her. Charlie lives alone with his father, now, in a house with curved walls and a design that Lloyd called, "Shitty Tattooine" (17). The uncomfortable nature of the house matches Charlie's feelings of living alone with his depressed father.

The mansion

Charlie discovers a strange, old mansion on a hill while biking around at the beginning of summer...