Bystander

During a family outing, Eric runs into Griffin at the supermarket. Griffin tells Eric’s mother that he likes to help old people with their shopping bags on Saturdays—his confidence and good manners impressing her.

Griffin asks Eric to hang out with him at the store. Eric starts to decline the invitation, but his mother approves. Griffin thanks her and offers to help with the family’s grocery bags.

Eric is surprised when Griffin ignores several customers, only stopping to help an older woman. He loads the groceries in her car and refuses her offer of payment.

Eric enjoys hanging out with Griffin and listening to his “funny stories about different teachers at school” (51). Eric asks Griffin about his friend Cody, “With that face of his, he reminds me of a weasel” (51)—and immediately regrets it. Griffin agrees but warns Eric not to say things like that around Cody. He points out that even though Cody is scrawny, he learned karate from an ex-con in town.

Griffin offers gum that he took from the older woman’s dashboard, believing he and Eric earned it by carrying eight grocery bags.

Eric and Griffin arrive at Griffin’s empty house. Griffin explains that his mother is away on a trip and his father is probably getting drunk at a bar. Eric says he needs to check in with his mother, as she won’t like that Griffin’s parents are not home. Griffin suggests Eric lie to her, which he does. When Eric’s mother asks to speak to Griffin’s father, Eric lies and says he’s in the shower.

Griffin shows off his wooden box of “souvenirs,” with “a weird assortment of random stuff, some kind of baseball pin, old coins, a pocketknife, a tooth, a couple of keys, a mishmash of junk” (58). Griffin says there is a story behind each item. When Eric asks to hear about the tooth, Griffin abruptly closes the box and says, “Maybe another time” (59).

Overall, Eric enjoys hanging out with Griffin, even though he’s “a different kind of guy” with some “rough edges” (60).

Eric retreats to his guitar whenever memories of his father (who has schizophrenia) emerge. He remembers an incident in which his mother asked his father to clear the table, and he threw the dishes into the sink—shattering them and making his mother cry.

Eric does not tell Griffin the truth about his father—his “long brooding silences” (64), “the voices in his head” (66), and how medication influenced his personality.

One day, a silent Griffin enters the cafeteria with a black eye. Eric asks the group what happened, and Cody says that Griffin’s father is likely responsible as he has a drinking problem. Griffin sits at the lunch table across from Eric and turns his head, as if he wants the latter to see his injury, “His eyes, cold” (73).