Annette Tozier was in a bad mood. Her parents had insisted that she go to her little brother's class play to "be supportive" even though it meant missing Brenda Arrowsmith's birthday party. Richie was the narrator, a role which gave him an opportunity to inflict his impression of the crow from The Secrets of NIMH on the audience. Richie had convinced his best friends Eddie, Stan, and Bill to try out too. Since the school had to find parts for any child who auditioned, Bill was cast as the frog, whose only line in the whole play was "Ribbit." Stan was the king, a paper crown concealing his kippah, and Eddie was one of the princess's undesired suitors. His mother livened up the proceedings by shouting at Eddie to be careful whenever he got too close to the edge of the stage for her comfort. From Annette's vantage point, it looked like he had a good couple of feet of room, but Richie's friends were always weird.

The part of the princess was played by Beverly Marsh, a girl in Richie's class. She happened to catch Annette's eye in the parking lot. The girl's father was pulling her roughly by the arm to their car and there was a look of fear in her eyes. Annette couldn't imagine what she could be in trouble for, and the whole thing disturbed her somewhat.

Richie babbled on about the play the whole drive home, and well after he should have been in bed. When they'd finally put him down, Wentworth knocked on the door to Annette's room.

"Come in."

"Thank you for coming to Richie's play. I know it means a lot to him."

Annette rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Hey, what's the deal with that Marsh girl?"

"Beverly?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you ask?"

"I saw her and her dad in the parking lot. He seemed kind of mad at her."

"Her mother died when she was very young. I think it's hard for Mr. Marsh raising a daughter by himself."

"What'd she die of?"

"She was very young when she had Beverly," so young, in fact, that her parents had been able to threaten Alvin with prosecution for statutory rape if he didn't 'do the right thing,' but Annette wouldn't need to know that for a couple of years more, "and I think it was all just too much for her."

That didn't really answer the question, but Wentworth's tone convinced Annette that pestering him further about it wouldn't get her an answer. After a few days, she forgot about the Marsh girl, and Richie seemed to forget about the play.

His new project was teaching Eddie to ride a bike. They had rescued an outgrown BMX from the trash, and Richie and Bill dedicated the weekends leading up to Halloween to helping Eddie learn to steer it in Bill's backyard. Georgie followed behind on his Big Wheel and shouted out encouragement, and the grass was soft enough that Eddie's frequent falls didn't result in any cuts or skinned knees that would upset his mother.

She was fobbed off the night of Halloween itself by being told that Mrs. Denbrough was taking Bill and Georgie trick-or-treating. It was technically true, but Eddie neglected to mention that they were only doing a quick circuit of the Denbrough's neighborhood so that Georgie could have the experience of trick-or-treating with his big brother, and that he and Bill were planning to meet Richie and Stan to spend the rest of the night collecting candy without any adult supervision whatsoever.

It was his first time riding his bike out on the street, and the feeling was exhilarating. Even though they stayed in town to maximize density (Richie kept records of which houses had the good candy, and had carefully planned out a rout that would ensure they hit those houses before they ran out), and even though he had to stow the bike behind a fence so that his mother didn't see it when she minutely inspected his candy for razor blades, for that night, he felt like it could take him anywhere.