Sag Harbor

Content Warning: The Chapter 8 Summary of this section contains a scene of bullying.

Benji returns briefly to the city one weekend in August to get his braces taken off. He is eager to return to Sag Harbor for the last two weeks of summer. When he gets back to the beach, he discovers that Clive has left for basketball camp, Bobby has returned home, and a girl Melanie, who hasn’t seen the group in a number of years, has joined the friends. Benji is interested in Melanie, even though she is dating Nick. They chat, and Melanie reminds Benji of when they were five years old and she kissed him. She asks him what happened to change him from the happy boy she remembers. As they walk, Benji sees the old summer home that the Coopers used to stay at when he was a child.

Earlier, Benji had heard a song on the radio which had triggered powerful emotions, but not until he sees the house does he realize that his emotions were focused on his childhood memories in that house: “This was my old house where all the good things still lived even though he had moved on.