Summary

In Part I, Chapter 1, when Cassandra Williams, or Cee, was 12, her seven-year-old brother Wayne drowned. Though her family “lived in Baltimore,” they were renting a vacation house “near Bethany Beach” (3). The siblings played by the water every morning. On the day Wayne died, Cee buried him in the sand. Wayne insisted Cee “cover his head” with their hat (4). Then she wandered off. Wayne swam “into the furrows” (6). Cee realized too late that he was drowning. She tried saving him. but the water was too strong.

Cee “woke up on the beach alone” (7). Wayne was missing. She had trouble remembering what had happened. A man in a blue windbreaker realized what was happening and drove Cee home. Cee sat on the stairs in the windbreaker and waited. After telling her father what happened, she closed herself in the bathroom. She saw Wayne...