On Friday afternoon, Denny Thurman excitedly dons a UPS driver disguise before heading to the home of Anita Sholter, his ex-wife. He lures the family dog, Pookie, out the dog door with a steak. With Pookie in the car, he heads to Matt’s school, certain the dog will be enough to bait Matt into hopping inside without hesitation.

As 13-year-old Bonnie and her friend Nancy Tagg get dressed for PE class, Bonnie discusses a recurring nightmare she used to have years ago, where she runs across a never-ending prairie of tall grass, calling for help that doesn’t come. The nightmares started when she was around age four, after her dad died. She tells Nancy, “At first I was superstitious about it, afraid if I told the dream it would come true” (16). The nightmares stopped when Bonnie was eight or nine. Nancy believes the nightmares are a sign of Bonnie’s fear of losing her mom just like she lost her dad. Mentioning her dad, whom Bonnie rarely thinks about anymore, makes her feel vulnerable. As their conversation trails off, Bonnie feels “anxious and edgy, as if some unexpected disaster were about to strike her family” (17).