The chapter opens with a flashback to a time before the internet. It's the middle of summer, and the narrator has just returned from a trip to his parents' house. He's worried about his mom and dad, who are away on vacation, and he's afraid that they're going to freak out and kill themselves if he doesn't take care of them. The narrator tries to calm himself down by saying that kids who act impulsively are more likely to commit suicide than those who do it on impulse. He also points out that parents used to kill their kids when they got home from school because they didn't want them to grow up to be like their parents. This is the same way, he says, with ghosts.