This was the way they talked when they got clear of town.
-- Narrator (Pages 3 - 31)

Importance: At the start of the short story, the narrator attends primarily to Cece, Jimmy, and Bud's friendship, and their relationship to their town and community. Though each of the boys has a starkly different family life, they each feel entrapped in their own way. In this moment, the narrator describes the boys' particular fondness for Jutland. The place is not only located outside the town center, but affords the boys an illusory sense of freedom and agency. While there, they not only speak differently, but they behave without inhibition. This passage also introduces the author's thematic interest in entrapment.

In fact, they made their way as adults would do, at a fairly steady speed and by the most reasonable route, with the weight on them of where they had to go and what had to be done next...
-- Narrator (Pages 3 - 31)