Chapter 15 Summary

Dwayne continues to teeter on the edge of sanity. He develops a mild case of echolalia and wanders through town repeating the last words of whatever he hears. He eats lunch at a hamburger restaurant he owns. His waitress is a seventeen-year-old girl named Patty Keene. Patty has a large amount of medical debt pending collections from her father's recent death by cancer. She recognizes Dwayne and believes that he is the solution to her financial troubles and therefore she flirts with him hoping to start up a relationship. Dwayne is oblivious to her advances.

Dwayne then returns to his office where the echolalia subsides. He thumbs through some pornography and becomes aroused. He calls Francine Pefko on the office telephone and asks her to accompany him to a motel in a neighboring city. Francine arranges to have her work position covered by...