Seventeen-year-old Elatsoe (or Ellie) is spending an evening at home with her ghost dog, Kirby. As she tries to entice Kirby to play with his new toy, a “life-sized plastic skull” with “a pair of googly eyes in its shallow eye sockets” (9), Ellie notices Kirby behaving strangely. He cowers and makes himself visible, and Ellie can sense that Kirby is “terribly anxious” (12). She remembers how Kirby “threw a fit” (12) when Ellie’s grandfather had a heart attack and wonders if someone in her family might be in trouble. Her parents are at the movies with their phones turned off, and although Ellie knows they are probably okay, she “[has] to know, with absolute certainty, that her parents [are] safe” (13).

She sets off on her bike toward the movie theater, but along the way, she discovers her friend Jay trying to climb the Herotonic Bridge. Jay explains that his girlfriend Brittany broke up with him last night, and the last time they came to the bridge together, “she drew a heart on the bridge” with “[their] names in it” (23). Jay wants to “draw a zigzag crack down the middle, like it’s broken” (23), but he drops his paint can into the river when Ellie surprises him.