Summary

Chapter two opens on the Gerald family driving through blinding rain from Columbus to Oak Cliff, Texas. Casey suggests that only destruction awaited them, and that, if his father had but known, “he would have kept on driving to Mexico” (22). They pull into the driveway of Dorothy West’s house — a former status symbol which she, despite the family’s financial ruin, has kept up, even hosting occasional parties there. Casey recalls Halloween night, 1992, when two grown men rang the doorbell of Dorothy’s house. Young Casey was intent on giving them candy, but Dorothy ordered him not to open the door. He disobeyed, moving closer toward the knob, and she chased him with a corn broom until they were both exhausted.

Casey’s memory shifts to a ride he took in his (paternal) grandfather’s Rolls-Royce along with his father. The three...