After The First Death

Part 3 returns to Ben at Castle. He waits for his father to arrive. While he waits, he tells a story from right before the bus incident. While out and about, he met a girl from a neighboring town and fell in love with her. When he called to ask her out a few days later, she barely remembered him and turned him down. Ben is heartbroken, and that heartbreak is now guilt because the entire time the kids were trapped on the bridge, “I could think only of myself and how miserable I was” (48).

In a flashback, Ben describes the days following his heartbreak. He got a call from his father about the hijacking. His father tells him to stay home and that a guard is being put on the house. His father received a letter addressed to his cover name, which means the hijacking has to do with the secret work done at Inner Delta.

Back in the present, Ben’s father is now 15 minutes late, and Ben still isn’t sure if he wants to see him. He alternates between typing and looking out the window, feeling as if his father is “already here in the room with me, watching and waiting” (56).