Section 14 Summary

Adam is in a small restaurant in Carver eating clam chowder. The only other customers are three guys eating popcorn. The clam chowder soothes Adam's upset stomach: as he thinks, he reflects on leaving his bike at the police station for safekeeping. Suddenly his arm is hit with something and he looks to the floor to see that it is popcorn. He hears the popcorn guys laughing and realizes they are the same troublemakers you find everywhere.

One of them, about sixteen or seventeen, comes over to Adam and starts a conversation. "Never seen you here before . . . where you from?" Adam tells him he's just passing through on his way to Rutterburg, on his bike. He tells the boy his bike is at the police station for safekeeping. He realizes too late that it is a mistake talking to these guys, as this...