Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

Jamie continues to pass the time with Hugh and Margie, putting up the Christmas tree, rolling cigarettes for Hugh or reading Burns poetry. He notices that Gran Margie doesn't have any living friends left and that she often lives in the past.

Jamie receives a call from Fergus McCluskey, a man in charge of the demolition of Hugh's buildings in Glasgow. Because Jamie was there as a child with Hugh when the buildings were commissioned, he secretly takes the train to see the buildings come down. He is so familiar with Hugh's construction and way of doing things that he even tells the demolition men where to hook the dynamite to best raze the structures.

The event is so emotional for Jamie that he is filled with an urgency to reunite with Alice while in Glasgow. He phones Gran Margie for...