The Year We Disappeared

With his family returning home, John insists on regular updates on who is guarding the house, who is escorting his children to school, etc. After three weeks in the hospital, he can sit up and play chess, a game he learned while in the Air Force. He is greatly relieved that, after being shot in the head, he hasn’t sustained any serious brain damage aside from some minor memory loss. While playing chess with fellow officer Rick Smith, Smith tells him that some off-duty officers from New York City heard about the shooting and volunteered to help with the investigation; but Chief of Police John Ferreira turns them down. John believes Ferreira is “running scared of Meyer” (123). He resolves to push himself physically until he is fit enough to be discharged.

John also recounts his first face-to-face meeting with Meyer several years earlier. While patrolling the local mall parking lot for rowdy teenagers, John issues a citation to Meyer’s nephew. When Meyer objects—using his customary threat, “I smell smoke” (123)—John doesn’t back down. For him, it’s a matter of pride and establishing boundaries. This is the beginning of his antagonistic relationship with Falmouth’s number one untouchable.