Summary

TAPE OZK015

In a taped session, Adam tells Brint about the family's road trip to Vermont.

Adam's father had them all sit in the front seat, presumably for protection. Adam asked his father about "The Farmer in the Dell," and then the whole family started singing it together. Adam questioned his father about Grey's statement that they can never return to Monument, and he reassured him that it is most likely a false alarm.

The Farmers stopped at a McDonald's for hamburgers and continued on until they found the Rest-A-While motel. They decided to sleep there, and Adam's father arranged for them all to stay in one room. The Farmers enjoyed a quiet dinner together, and joked around in the cabin until they went to sleep. The next morning they headed to the town of Barre.

As the Farmers drove, Adam's father thought that a car was following them. They hoped that it was just one of Grey's men guarding them. The Farmers pulled over to the side of the road, and as the other car passed, Adam's father assured the others that it was Grey's men. The Farmers drove on until they hit a breathtaking view, and they all stepped out of the car. Suddenly, a car roared around a curve and hurtled toward them. Adam ran, heard a scream, and turned around.

In dialogue with Brint, Adam slowly reveals that he saw the car "smashing," but he will not say what it smashed into.

A third-person narrator explains that Adam remembers that the car smashed into his family and himself. The car sent him flying into the air, and he saw his mother die next to him. Adam lay in blood and looked at his dead mother. He heard three voices that said that his father got away, but that they will get him—"they never miss." Adam averted his eyes from his mother and saw a tall man in gray pants walking toward them. The man told the other men to remove Adam's mother, but to keep Adam, as he may be "useful." As the men took Adam away, Adam fell into a hazy dream.