In the first and longest work in the book, the year is 1960. A young boy named Bobby Garfield lives in Harwich,
Connecticut, with his mother, Liz, a widow. He befriends a man named
Ted Brautigan, who possesses
psychic abilities. He confesses to Bobby that he is being stalked by "low men" who wear yellow coats and drive garish cars. Although Bobby agrees to let Ted know when he starts seeing "lost pet" signs that indicate that the low men are near, Bobby says nothing when he eventually starts seeing them for fear of losing his friend.
One day, Bobby finds his friend Carol has been beaten by three bullies with a baseball bat and left in a grove of trees. He takes her to his apartment, where Ted has to remove her shirt in order to set her dislocated shoulder. Liz comes home (herself having just been violently raped at a real estate seminar) and assumes that Ted has been molesting Carol. They resolve the misunderstanding, and Liz takes Carol home. Suspecting that his mother has told the low men of Ted's whereabouts, Bobby catches up to Ted just as they are about to take him away. Bobby is given the choice to go with Ted—destination unknown. He decides to stay, but despises himself for his decision.
After leaving Harwich with his mother and twice being put in a juvenile detention facility, Bobby receives an envelope from Ted filled with red rose petals. He knows that Ted is once again free of the low men.
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