Book One: The Thing Was, Chapter 21-Chapter 22 Summary

After Jacqueline Onassis books passage on "the Nature Cruise of the Century", it becomes an event for the rich and famous. Mary and Roy Hepburn's names are left off the officially released passenger list because they aren't celebrities. That's why they aren't included in the special luxury flight from New York for the passengers. Mary also does not receive the telegram sent on November 1, declaring that the cruise should go on as planned despite international economic problems. By that time, half the passengers have canceled, and almost all remaining passengers will be on the New York flight.

King has made "the Nature Cruise of the Century" out of a simple tourist expedition, and he has made the ship's cook and the captain celebrities. The captain has been on Carson, joking about...