Part One: Still as Night - Chapter One Summary

The first chapter of the book opens with the news that May has just died and her husband, Ob, is having a difficult time accepting it. In fact, on the night May died, Ob spent the night in his old Chevy pick-up, leaving twelve-year-old Summer to worry about him.

Summer had arrived at her Aunt May and Uncle Om's house six years earlier, after being passed around from relative to relative after her mother died. As soon as she arrived, she understood what love was like, from the way May and Ob treated each other and treated her. She remembers being welcomed into May and Ob's trailer with open arms, and shelves full of junk food. She also remembers being overwhelmed by the beauty of the whirligigs - pinwheels...