Oak Street Beach

Oak Street Beach is where the young narrator and his girlfriend come close to having sex, but are interrupted by the arrival of cops on the sand. It is where they see the body of the drowned woman pulled from the water, an experience that continues to haunt the young girl and ultimately causes the young couple's relationship to fall apart.

The Rambler

The narrator drives his family car, and it is where the couple breaks up toward the end of the summer. While they used to spend their time in the car laughing or touching one another, the break up scene in the car is marked by silence and distance. The car smells like smoked fish and kielbasa because the narrator's father delivered meats for his uncle occasionally, and this sensory detail sticks with narrator as he remembers experiencing both joy and sadness with his...