Summary

Chapter five focuses on the strange, large man who had sat down at Eleanor’s table in the previous chapter from the point of view of the Observer. Once she leaves, he sits at the table for fifteen minutes before leaving. As he gets up from the table, he bumps into the woman sitting behind him. Her companion is about to complain until he sees how intimidating the man is. The companion’s cowardice makes the woman abandon any remaining interest she might have had in him.

The Observer is interested in these quick, subtle reactions that can change the course of events in these people’s lives. But the Observer is not focused on the people in the coffee shop, so he follows the large man outside to his unusual robin’s egg blue car. When the Observer compares this cars to the...