Later

The novel cuts to the past, as adult Jamie Conklin recalls his first-grader self going home from school, holding his mother’s hand and carrying a drawing of a turkey—the kind drawn by tracing one’s open hand.

Jamie’s mother, Tia Conklin, is carrying a heavy manuscript written by Regis Thomas. She is a literary agent, and Thomas is the author whose best-selling Roanoke series is her bread and butter. Tia takes the world very seriously, and Jamie later learns that this is partly because she suspects he might be a “crazy kid”. This particular day is the day she decides he isn’t “crazy” after all.

The elevator in their building is out of order, so Jamie offers to carry the manuscript for his mother Tia—but she reminds him that everyone has to carry their own burdens in life. Arriving at their floor in the Park Avenue apartment building, they encounter their neighbor Marty Burkett, a Professor of Literature at New York University. He and his wife, Mona, are standing outside their apartment. At first, Jamie doesn’t realize Mrs. Burkett is dead because dead people usually look no different from living people to him. Professor Burkett tells Jamie and Tia that his wife recently died.

Professor Burkett tells Tia that he can’t find his wife’s rings. While the adults are distracted, Jamie asks the dead Mrs. Burkett where she put her rings. The dead have to tell the truth when asked a direct question. Jamie doesn’t see anything unusual about this, as he thinks all adults tell the truth. Mrs. Burkett tells Jamie that she became disoriented by a stroke and hid the rings in the back of the hall closet. She also tells him that his turkey drawing is terrible.

As she watches Tia console Professor Burkett, Mrs. Burkett remarks that his cigarette is going to burn Tia’s hair—which it does—and that in a couple of months at most, he will be dating a Dolores Magowan. Before Jamie and Tia leave, Mrs. Burkett begins to cry. She kisses her husband’s cheek, and he scratches his cheek where she touched him.

Adult Jamie tells the reader that he’s always been able to see dead people, and sees it as a normal ability. Returning to the story, Jamie and his mother Tia go down the hall to their apartment. They have a big, expensive apartment on Park Avenue because Tia’s literary agency is successful, mostly thanks to author Regis Thomas. Dropping onto their couch, Tia remarks that while Mona Burkett was obnoxious, Professor Burkett is devastated by her death. Jamie tells her that Mona loved him, insulted his turkey drawing, and then said goodbye to Professor Burkett in her own way.

Tia only half-believes Jamie. She’s seen enough to know he can see and even talk to dead people, but she doesn’t want to believe it. She tells Jamie not to mention any of this to Professor Burkett. Jamie agrees and admits that Mona Burkett was right about his turkey. Tia assures him it’s the most beautiful turkey in the world.

Jamie is on his way to his room when he stops and tells his mother about Mrs. Burkett hiding her rings in the back of the linen closet.

Jamie and Tia go to Professor Burkett’s apartment with Chinese takeout for dinner, and Tia suggests that Professor Burkett look for Mrs. Burkett’s missing rings in the linen closet. She offers to search herself. A few minutes later, she returns with the rings.

Three days later, Jamie and Tia attend Mrs. Burkett’s funeral. Afterward, Tia asks Jamie if Mrs. Burkett was present; he says she was. Jamie was surprised to see her there, because the dead don’t usually hang around. Tia tells Jamie to never tell anyone that he can see and talk to dead people. She knows people die with secrets, and that there are people who, if they found out about Jamie’s ability, would use him to get those secrets.

That night, Tia checks on Jamie in his room and finds him crying. He asks her what would happen to him if she died or developed early onset Alzheimer’s like his Uncle Harry, but she assures him that the chances of this happening are slim. The real cause of Jamie’s tears is the memory of the man who died in a bicycle accident in Central Park.

The novel cuts to the past, to the incident that first made Tia wonder if Jamie was different or “fey.” Jamie and his mother drive past a traffic accident, and Jamie sees the victim, a bicyclist, standing beside his body. He leans out the window of the car and throws up. Tia tries to convince him that the man is not dead, or that he imagined seeing him.

They return home, and Jamie’s description of the bicyclist almost convinces Tia that he saw something. The next day, The New York Times runs an article about the accident. The description of the bicyclist perfectly matches Jamie’s description.

The novel cuts to two years after Mrs. Burkett’s death. Tia’s literary agency struggles. Before Uncle Harry’s Alzheimer’s became too severe, he invested in a Ponzi scheme. Following his example, Tia invested as well.

The economy collapses in 2008, and Tia’s investments are gone. She is forced to sell her valuables and move from the Park Avenue apartment to a cheaper part of the city. She manages to keep the agency’s head above water, mainly because they have author Regis Thomas to keep them afloat.

One day in 2009, when the economy is beginning to recover, Jamie is in third grade. It is a few weeks before Christmas, and Tia comes to take him out of class. She is pale and frightened. Tia rushes Jamie out to the curb where her girlfriend Liz Dutton is waiting in her police cruiser. Tia tells Jamie that Regis Thomas is dead; their income will soon be gone.

Adult Jamie provides background information on Regis Thomas. Thomas is an agoraphobic bachelor who writes about fearless heroes fighting alligators and duels in between cavorting with lusty women. He has written nine lengthy volumes for his Roanoke Saga. The tenth volume is supposed to be the last in the series, in which he reveals the long-withheld secret of the Roanoke colony, which disappeared inexplicably in 1590.

However, Regis Thomas died at his desk after only writing 30 pages. The advance has already been paid, including the agency’s 15 percent. If Tia has to pay back their share of the advance, the agency will be ruined. They would have no way to pay for Uncle Harry’s nursing home, Jamie will lose any chance of going to college, and they will have no way of paying their bills. This is where young Jamie comes in.

Young Jamie gets in the back of Liz Dutton’s police cruiser. At this point (and partly from reading Regis Thomas’s books), he has an idea of Tia and Liz’s relationship. He questions Liz’s presence, but neither Tia nor Liz gives him a direct answer.

As they drive, Tia asks Jamie whether Regis Thomas will most likely be at his house, the morgue, or the funeral parlor. Jamie is shocked and hurt to realize that Tia told Liz about his ability to speak to the dead. However, Liz gives him a wink in the rearview mirror, as if to tell him that she knows it isn’t true. Tia tells Jamie not to worry about his secret, as their lives are about to fall apart without Thomas’s final book.

Young Jamie likes that Liz insists on stopping at Burger King to get him something to eat—but she will later become an enemy.

Adult Jamie recounts a conversation between Liz and Tia in the car because it will be important later. Liz mentions that a serial bomber called Thumper has killed someone this time. Thumper has been setting bombs since long before Jamie’s birth, but this time, he set a bomb in a public phone booth, and someone was killed rather than just injured. Liz wants to be assigned to the task force investigating him.