Summary

Book 2 of King’s novel begins with Chapter 43. This section of the novel “On the Border” is set from July 5 to September 6, 1990.

Nick was so shocked when what he thought was a dead body sat up and started talking to him that he crashed his bicycle. Nick wrote a note to the man, who said his name was Tom Cullen, but Tom told Nick he could not read. Nick realized that Tom was mentally handicapped. He continued to signal to Tom that he could not hear or speak. Tom went into a sort of blackout for a moment. When he came back to life, he knew Nick could not talk or hear. The narrator indicated that these “blackouts” (472) happened when Tom was thinking normally. He would snap out of these spells with an understanding of what was happening around him.

In the...