Sag Harbor

Content Warning: The Chapter 5 Summary of this section includes depictions of domestic verbal abuse, alcoholism, and fat-shaming.

Benji’s parents finally make it to Sag Harbor for the weekend. Benji is anxious due to his father’s moods. He’s relieved when he hears his parents laugh in the morning: “Things seemed okay out there” (200). He then hears “a sound that the normal person would never notice. Poomp” (201). That is the sound of the liquor cabinet door opening when the magnet releases. Benji gets anxious again, realizing that his father has started drinking early in the morning, but then he reassures himself that he will be leaving soon to hang out with Bobby, who now has a car.

As he observes his mother, he notices how the beach makes her seem younger: “She was a different person. She’d never missed a summer the last forty years. Her friends on the beach were her friends from the old days. Her crew, like me and Reggie had our crew” (203). Benji sees how his mother’s connection to Sag Harbor is similar to his own and is happy to see her grow young again when surrounded by her friends.