The Year We Disappeared

The principle at Eric and Shawn’s school informs John and Polly that their sons are being “targeted” by other students for perceived special treatment. This only feeds John’s anger, and, despite Polly’s admonition that “you have to get it under control” (168), he wants to hold on to it until he can exact his revenge.

John then recalls a traffic accident several years before in which a Corvette slams into a power line. The passenger has been thrown through the windshield, both legs torn off, chest cavity ripped open. As if that wasn’t enough, a fallen power line carrying 4,000 volts chars parts of his body to ash. The driver of the car, meanwhile, escapes with only minor injuries. John ponders the fate of these two boys (as well as his own—he nearly steps on the fallen power line in the dark but misses it twice). He concludes that, for the passenger, “it was his time to die, my time to live” (173).

Cylin begins to see a change in her brothers’ behavior. They get into fights at school and are now labeled “bad” kids. They go to the shooting range with John and Don Price. She doesn’t recognize these boys she’s grown up with. Meanwhile, she notices she’s being ostracized by some of her friends because their parents are nervous of the police presence. Even her teacher, Ms. Williams, treats her unkindly, evidently resenting her “special treatment.” She takes Cylin’s favorite hairbrush and refuses to return it. When Polly finds out, she speaks to the principle. The next morning, Cylin is taken out of Ms. Williams’s class and placed in a Special Education class. Her new teacher, Ms. Campbell, is kind and empathetic and reassures her that everything will be okay.

John’s recovery proceeds: His trachea hole is healing, and, a few months after leaving the hospital, he is ready to consume liquid food orally. With the stomach tube removed, he must push a tube down his throat and then pump the blended food through the tube. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know how to regulate the amount, and he “eats” too much which makes him nauseous. Because he literally can’t vomit through a wired jaw, Polly takes him to the hospital where they administer an anti-nausea drug. When he returns, he notices a new cop on security detail, a man he doesn’t recognize. Ever since his return from the hospital, he’s been feeling restless and full of energy, and the new cop makes him paranoid. He unholsters his gun and paces the room. Polly suggests he’s having an anxiety attack in response to the anti-nausea medication; they bring him back to the hospital where the doctors give him a sedative.

Meanwhile, the investigation proceeds slowly, and John grows frustrated with the lack of progress. In the past, he has arrested or filed charges against two people close to Meyer: his illegitimate son, Paul Cena, and his brother, James, but he doesn’t hold much hope that the detectives on his case will turn up much evidence. At one point, a detective tries to insinuate that perhaps Polly was having an affair, and the culprit was her jealous lover. If the crime was personal, the town of Falmouth would not be obligated to pay for John’s protection, but it’s a false lead, and both John and Polly are outraged by the implication.

When it becomes clear that Meyer is being protected, John plots his revenge: When he is fully recovered, he will get his family out of town, stalk Meyer, and kill him with an untraceable gun. 

One afternoon, Cylin answers the phone, and the caller, who doesn’t identify himself, asks her questions about John’s condition and the progress of the investigation. Innocently, she answers until the questions get too specific. She calls Kellie to the phone who berates the caller and tells the kids not to answer the phone anymore. She informs the police, and they install a recording device on the phone.

Cylin grows tired of all the restrictions on her movements, so one day, she asks to accompany her brothers to the shooting range. John reluctantly agrees. When she fires the gun, the kickback pinches her hand. She decides she doesn’t want to shoot anymore, and, while John’s friends give the boys a lesson in what part of the body to aim at, Cylin wanders the garbage dump, wondering if her brothers will ever need to make that kind of life-and-death decision. She watches John take target practice, and the shooting seems to put him into a trance. On the ride home, Cylin decides she never wants to fire a gun again.